IC-NRLF 


GIFT 
NOV    5  1913 


A  Secret  Political  League 

WHO  AND  WHAT  IT  IS 


ITS  ANONYMOUS  CIRCULARS 

EXPOSED 


AND 


Court  Cases  Involving 
the  Sex  Problem 

FRANKLY  DISCUSSED 


BEN  B.  LINDSEY 

JUDGE  OF  THE  JUVENILE  COURT 
DENVER,  COLO. 


1 


INDEX. 


A  Foreword  and  a  Challenge 

Woman's   Protective  League  Exposed    

Questions  Asked  and  Answered   

Who  Backs  League    I 

Humane  Society  Used  in  Politics   * 

Modern  Herods   1 

Their  Appeal  to  Anti-Suffragists  2( 

Wealthy  Men  Protected  21 

No  Intention  to  Try  to  Recall  Judge 22-25 

Judge's  Absences  Exaggerated    24-86 

The  Judge's  Illness    24-88 

Truth  About  Sex  Cases   26 

Probation  and  Sex  Cases   31-45 

The  Term  Rape,  Its  New  Meaning 34 

Typical  Girl  Cases  in  Court 36 

Confidences  of  Girls    38 

Administrative  Work  Juvenile  Court 39 

Assistant  Woman  Judge    41 

Thousands  of  Sex  Cases  43 

Over  95  per  cent  Offenders  Punished 40 

Comparative  Tables  in  Sex  Cases 48-57 

Life  Imprisonment  in  Cases    60 

Falsehoods  of  Woman's  League 60 

Sample  Cases  Criminality  of  Secret  League 62 

Why  Juvenile  Court  Should  Handle  Sex  Cases 71 

The  Unmarried  72 

Dog  Catchers  and  Probation  Officers   72 

The  Important  Thing   73 

Twenty-five  Big  Items  Work  for  Girls 74 

Approval  by  Police  Officers   S(  , 

Approval  by  Women  Workers  . .-..'. . .'./.'. . . ; ? 

Comparative  Cost  of  Courts    ...:....!.. 88-1 

Expenses  of  Juvenije.  Couljtl'.  -. ; ." .  '.„.' ,..'..",, 8 

One  Hundred  and  Fifty  Items  'Constructive  Work 9 

Millions   Saved  Taxpayers    91 

Judge  Approved  by  People  Ten  Times 92 


A    Foreword    and    a    Challenge 

ANY  people  in  Denver,  to  say  nothing  of  the  people 
outside  of  Denver,  have  little  conception  of  the  crim- 
inal methods  of  Special  Privilege  when  it  is  once  at- 
tacked.    Recently,  thousands  of  anonymous  circulars  and  letters 
have  been  sent  all  over  the  United  States,  containing  infamous 
^representations,  half-truths  and  lies  concerning  the  Juvenile 
ourt  of  Denver  and  its  Judge.     To  answer    many    questions 
asked  about  these  circulars,  this  pamphlet  and  challenge  is  issued 
by  the  Juvenile  Court  of  Denver.     It  is  not  issued  as  a  boast. 
The  Court  could  have  done  nothing  without  the  help  of  the  good 
,en  of  the  state  and  its  friends  among  all  classes  of  citizens 
—men,  women  and  children.     This  pamphlet  is  a  complete,  and 
''list,  a  final  anszvcr  to  these  attacks.     It  will  present  to  the 
reader  who  cares  to  be  informed,  many  interesting  facts,  as  well 
as  something  of  the  methods  by  which  the  "Beast"  fights — when 
it  turns  polecat. 

Sex  and  Sin. 

On  page  48  will  be  found  a  review  of  the  cases  involv- 
ing what  we  have  called  "Sex  and  Sin."  These  are  the  cases 
that  have  been  deliberately  misrepresented  to  the  public  by  the 
enemies  of  the  Court.  The  presentation  here  made  can  be  de- 
pended upon  as  taken  with  substantial  fairness  and  correctness 
from  the  records  of  the  c'ourts  and  from  those  who  have  knowl- 
edge of  the  evidence,  of  the  testimony,  the  difficulties  and  the 
handicaps  in  these  cases.  IT  SHOWS  AN  INCREASE  IX 

:FFICIENCY  IN  THE  PROTECTION  OF  GIRL.  CHIL- 
DREN  OF  FROM   SEVENTY  TO   THREE   HUNDRED 
>ER    CENT    OVER    THE    FORMER    HANDLING    OF 
*HESE  CASES  IN  THE  CRIMINAL  COURT.     It  ought 
to  be  important  reading  for  every  father,  mother  and  good  cit- 
int crested  in  the  great  problem  of  sex  and  sin. 

Appreciation  of  the  Press. 

The  Court  wishes  to  acknowledge  its  appreciation  of  the 
Ip  rendered  by  the  Philadelphia  North  American,  and  those 

269640 


HE  country  has  recently  been  flooded  with  circulars  at- 
tacking the  Judge  and  the  Juvenile  Court  of  Denver. 
Most  of  these  circulars  are  anonymous.  Where  a  sig- 
nature appears  it  purports  to  be  issued  by  "The  Woman's  Pro- 
tective League."  Investigation  has  been  c'are fully  made  in  Den- 
ver, and  so  far  as  can  be  ascertained  the  only  persons  known  to 
be  active  for  the  Woman's  Protective  League  are  Mr.  Rodney 
Curtis,  E.  K.  Whitehead  and  a  Dr.  Alary  Elizabeth  Bates. 

The  Woman's  Protective  League  Exposed. 

Under  cover,  so  far,  this  organization  is  secretly  backed  by 
some  of  the  worst  of  the  old  political  enemies  of  the  Juvenile 
Judge;  certain  well  known  political  hacks,  soreheads,  and  past 
or  present  beneficiaries  of  the  corrupt  interests  we  have  helped 
to  fight  in  Denver.  Among  this  latter  class  are  types  of  indi- 
viduals who  have  in  the  past,  and  will,  no  doubt,  in  the  future, 
sink  to  any  depth  of  degradation.  They  will  sign  anything, 
say  anything,  do  anything.  Such  creatures  are  the  results  of 
every  community's  struggle  for  right  and  justice.  So  far,  they 
are  dodging  about  in  the  dark  and  have  not  come  out  openly 
as  they  may  be  forced  to  come  out  at  a  later  period.  For  the 
sake  of  a  political  job,  or  to  revenge  themselves  upon  others 
for  their  failure  to  get  it,  they  are  known  to  be  capable  of  any 
sort  of  infamy.  Wliile  their  numbers  are  limited,  it  can  be 
expected  that  they  will  be  kept  and  used  in  this  struggle  as  they 
have  been  in  past  struggles.  Fortunately,  their  charac- 
ter, connections,  animus  and  motives  are  so  well  known  in  Den- 
ver that,  as  a  rule,  they  are  not  the  serviceable  instruments 
they  are  expected  to  be.  No  doubt  this  class  will  be  lined  up 
with  the  W7oman's  Protective  League.  In  such  a  struggle 
there  is  also  a  certain  class  of  "eminently  respectables"  who, 
for  various  personal,  political  and  business  reasons,  and  a  share 
in  the  crumbs  that  fall  from  the  table  of  special  privilege,  are 
counted  upon  to  lend  the  attacks  respectability. 

Criminal   Methods  of  a  Secret  Political  League. 

These  attacks  consist  of  a  skillfully  prepared  series  of  cir- 
culars dealing  with  what  are  known  as  the  sex  cases  in  the  Ju- 


venile  Court  of  Denver.  The  cleverness  of  the  thing  is  at  once 
apparent.  A  jail  blotter,  or  alleged  court  records  that  do  not 
pretend  to  give  the  evidence  or  the  facts  in  a  single  one  of 
these  cases,  is  cunningly  prepared  so  as  to  make  it  appear  that- 
many  of  them,  dismissed  by  the  District  Attorney,  or  found 
not  guilty  by  a  jury,  were  discharged  by  the  Judge  of  the  Ju- 
venile Court,  or,  where  guilty,  probation,  or  some  sen- 
tence other  than  states  prison,  was  applied,  when  all  the  cir- 
cumstances warranted  or  required  such  disposition,  that  there 
was  something  wrong  about  the  action  of  the  court.  The  read- 
ers of  the  'circulars,  thus  tricked  and  lied  to,  are  supposed  to 
be  aroused  to  some  sort  of  frenzy  or  indignation  against  the 
Judge  and  the  court.  To  further  their  purpose  in  seeking  to 
produce  this  effect,  are  circulars  containing  outrageous  mis- 
representations of  the  facts  as  to  several  of  these  cases  there 
specifically  dealt  with. 

Unfair  Criticism. 

Any  fair-minded  person  must  know,  if  they  will  only 
pause  to  think,  that  no  one  can  honestly  criticise  the  action 
of  the  court  in  these  difficult  cases  unless  they  know  all  the 
facts  and  the  evidence.  Unless  the  Supreme  Court  itself  ob- 
served the  witnesses  and  the  parties,  their  demeanor  and  ap- 
pearance as  they  testified,  or  appeared  in  court,  the  rule  is  that 
they  have  no  right,  even  on  the  facts,  to  question  the  wisdom 
of  the  court  in  such  a  case.  Yet,  upon  this  kind  of  a  trumped- 
up  series  of  anonymous  circulars,  and  deliberate  misrepresen- 
tations, these  enemies  of  the  court,  who  made  no  pretense  that 
they  ever  heard  the  evidence  in  a  single  case,  are  proclaiming 
loudly  in  Denver,  and  throughout  the  nation  that  it  is  their  jus- 
tification for  asking  for  the  recall  of  the  Judge  of  the  Juvenile 
Court  of  Denver. 
/ 
No  Mother  or  Girl  Complaining. 

An  interesting  fact  is  that  no  parent  of  a  child  is   com- 
plaining, no  mother  of  a  girl,  or  any  girl,  or  her  real  friends  or 
relatives,   and  none   of  the   alleged   outraged  victims   or   their 
L  mothers,  have  ever  lodged  the  slightest  complaint  anywhere. 

7 


Effort  to  Poison  Country  Against  Court. 

While  no  fair-minded  person  believes  that  they  can  suc- 
ceed in  poisoning  the  atmosphere  against  the  object  of  their 
hatred  to  such  an  extent  as  to  produce  what  they  have  called 
"the  psychological  condition,"  when  they  may  be  able  to  make 
their  modern  methods  of  assassination  successful,  it  must  be 
admitted  that  they  can — as  they  have  time  and  again  in  the 
past  by  similar  methods — cause  a  great  deal  of  annoyance  and 
expense  to  the  court  and  its  Judge.  Time  and  again  during 
the  past  few  years  has  the  Judge  of  the  court  been  called  upon 
to  answer,  at  large  expense,  thousands  of  letters,  mostly  from 
friendly  sources,  inquiring  as  to  the  cause  and  meaning  of  these 
attacks.  It  is  out  of  regard  for  such  honest  inquirers,  and  be- 
cause of  the  opportunity  to  show  up  again  the  methods  of  the 
powers  of  privilege  that  this  court  has  offended  for  its  part  in 
the  battle  for  human  rights  and  justice,  that  this  statement  of 
the  situation  is  made.  Our  purpose  then  is  to  answer  some  of 
the  questions  our  friends  have  asked  us,  such  as : 

Questions  Asked. 

"Who  are  the  authors  of  these  circulars?" 

"What  is  the  motive  and  purpose  of  these  constant  at- 
tacks upon  the  Juvenile  Court  of  Denver  and  its  Judge?" 

""What  are  the  real  facts  about  the  sex  cases  that  have  fur- 
nished material  for  their  latest  circulars,  charges  and  anony- 
mous letters?" 

"Is  there  any  truth  in  their  claim  that  they  are  going  to 
recall  the  Judge  of  Denver's  Juvenile  Court?" 

Taking  these  queries  up  in  their  order  the  following  are 
the  facts : 

Who  is  Mr.  Rodney  Curtis? 

Who  is  Mr.  Rodney  Curtis?  'He  is  ex-President  of  The 
Denver  City  Tramway  Company,  and  one  of  Denver's  wealthy 
citizens.  One  of  that  type  obsessed  with  the  idea  that  the  utility 
corporations  that  have  robbed  the  city  of  Denver  are  the  city 
of  Denver.  That  to  question  their  known  court-proved  polit- 
ical corruption  is  "to  knock  the  town  and  hurt  business."  A 
man  of  this  type  who  has  a  vacant  house,  or  who  finds  his 


ks  in  the  public  service  corporations  declining  because  their 
claims  to  perpetual  franchises  have  been  denied  through  activ- 
3  in  which  the  Judge  of  the  Juvenile  Court  has  participated, 
is,  of  course,  convinced  that  the  Judge  is  a  dangerous  man. 
He  readily  lends  credit  to  all  the  slanders  circulated  about  him 
or  the  court. 

Activity   of   Ex-President   of   Denver    Tramway 

Company. 

So  it  is  Rodney  Curtis,  former  president  of  the  city  rail- 
road company  and  retired  capitalist,  who  personally  visits  one 
of  Denver's  leading  women  to  interest  her  in  the  Woman's  Pro- 
tective League.  Just  how  many  prominent  women  the  ex-presi- 
dent of  the  city  railroad  company  thus  visited  is,  of  course,  nui: 
known.  But  so  far  it  is  true  that  no  self-respecting  woman  of 
Denver  can  be  prevailed  upon  to  head  the  Woman's  Protective 
League.  Those  associated  with-it  have  bitterly  and  vindictively 
fought  measures  designed  to  change  the  conditions  responsible 
for  most  of  the  woes  of  little  children.  They  always  "front" 
for  those  charities  that  salve  the  sores  for  which  they  are  most 
responsible.  When  we  dig  into  the  conditions  that  made  the 
sores,  that  ruin  homes,  or  deny  parents  justice,  and  hurl  a 
million  little  children — boys  and  girls — into  the  courts  and  in- 
stitutions of 'this  country,  they  make  frantic  appeals  against  us. 
Why  ?  Because  they  are  profiting  from  a  system  that  makes  fur 
their  woes  and  misfortunes;  that  grinds  dividends  out  of  their 
tears,  their  virtue  and  their  blood.  They  may  become  the  active 
promoters  or  financial  backers  of  "fake"  organizations  like  "The 
Woman's  Protective  League."  They  tell  the  world  the  feeble 
lie  that  its  object  is  to  "protect  the  girl  children  of  Denver/' 
They  know  its  object  is  to  destroy  those  who  would  dare  help 
protect  the  children  of  this  country. 

A  Question  for  Mr.  Curtis. 

\Yhen  the  city  railroad  company,  of  which  Mr.  Curtis  is  the 
ex-president,  was  in  league  with  the  soul-killing  gamblers'  syndi- 
cate and  brothel-keepers  of  Denver  to  get  the  power  to  steal  and 
hold  their  privileges,  how  much  concern  did  he  have  for  the 
hundreds  of  women  and  young  girls  that  were  degraded  and 
ruined  in  order  that  others  might  line  their  pockets  with  the 

9 


proceeds  of  their  misery  and  shame?  It  was  a  time  when  the 
court  and  its  Judge  were  fighting  these  creatures  and  sending 
them  to  jail  in  spite  of  the  powers  trying  to  protect  them. 

Who  is  Whitehead? 

E.  K.  Whitehead  is  the  secretary  of  the  humane  society 
of  Denver.  It  is  a  private  corporation.  For  many  years  it  was 
controlled  and  dominated  by  the  then  President  of  the  Denver 
Union  Water  Company,  one  of  the  kind  of  public  service  cor- 
porations responsible  for  the  political  corruption  that  has  come 
to  every  city  where  special  privileges  are  to  be  had.  For  many 
years  this  utilities  corporation  head  was  the  president,  chief 
promoter  and  backer  of  this  society.  It  was  one  of  the  corpor- 
ations connected  by  business,  social  and  political  ties  with  the 
political  Boss  of  Denver,  the  present  President  of  the  Denver 
City  Tramway  Company.  ^Having  back  of  them  this  terrific 
political  power,  a  law  was  passed  by  the  legislature  in  1901  de- 
claring this  private  charity  a  state  bureau.  It  then  became  no 
longer  necessary  for  these  rich  men  to  put  up  the  money  to  sup- 
port it.  But  their  private  board  of  directors  continued  to  name 
its  officers  and  let  Whitehead  use  it  for  such  political  purposes 
as  he  pleased.  By  a  cunning  evasion  of  the  law  it  has 
drawn  in  favors  and  in  money  between  sixty  and  seventy-five 
thousand  dollars  from  the  state  treasury  in  violation  of  five 
or  six  positive  provisions  of  the  constitution  of  the  state  of 
Colorado. 

Constitution  Violated. 

These  declare  that  the  legislature  shall  not  make  "any 
appropriation  for  charitable,  indutsrial,  educational' of  benev- 

*For  most  of  its  existence  the  head  of  this  society  has  been,  as 
recently,  the  millionaire  head  of  a  big  mining  or  utility  corporation. 
Being  dominated  by  these  influences,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered,  that 
through  the  cunning  of  Whitehead,  who  is  the  creature  of  their  bounty, 
they  have  so  bittejly  fought  laws,  such  as  the  last  child  labor  law  to 
take  children  out  of  the  mines  and  coke  ovens,  where  sworn  statements 
and  testimony  showed  they  were  being  exploited.  It  is  not  to  be  won- 
dered, that  through  the  most  skilful  methods  known  to  crooked  politics, 
some  of  their  agents  have  entered  actively  into  the  political  struggles 
of  this  state,  in  open  or  secret  efforts  to  defeat  laws  to  advance  social 
and  industrial  justice.  The  crimes  of  capital  are  bad  enough.  But  to 
capitalize  the  woes  of  little  children  to  sink  them  deeper  into  poverty 
and  misery,  is  a  crime  for  which  they  will  some  day  have  to  answer 
before  the  throne  of  justice.  As  we  go  to  press  Mr.  Evans  is  reported 
to  have  resigned  as  president  of  the  Tramway  Company. 

10 


olent  purposes,  to  any  person,  corporation  or  community, 
not  under  the  absolute  control  of  the  state.,  nor  to  any  denom- 
inational or  sectarian  institution  or  association"  (  Article  V, 
Section  34),  or  delegate  any  power  of  state  "to  any  private 
corporation  or  association  *  *  :;:  to  perform  any  munici- 
pal functions  whatever"  (Article  V,  Section 
any  donation  or  grant  to  or  in  aid  of  any  corpora- 

tion or  company"  (Article  XI,  Section  2),  and  that  "the  gen- 
eral assembly  shall  not  pass  special  laws  :  for  grant- 
ing to  any  corporation,  association  or  individual  any  special  or 
exclusive  privilege''  (Article  .V,  Section  25),  and  that  "every 
person  having  authority  to  exercise  or  exercising  any  public 
or  governmental  duty,  power  or  function,  shall  be  an  elective 
officer,  or  one  appointed,  drawn  or  designated  in  accordance 
with  law  by  an  elective  officer  or  officers,  or  by  some  board, 
commission,  person  or  persons  legally  appointed  by  an  deceive 
officer  or  officers,  each  of  which  said  elective  officers  shall  be 
subject  to  the  recall  provision  of  this  constitution"  (Article  21 
of  this  constitution). 

Whitehead  not  Elected  or  Appointed. 

It  is  not  generally  known  to  the  public  that  this  man 
Whitehead  is  neither  elected  by  the  people,  nor  appointed  by 
the  governor,  or  any  board  that  is  in  turn  appointed  by  the 
governor  elected  by  the  people.  He  is  not  subject  to  the  recall. 
He  is  the  one  so-called  state  officer  who  is  absolutely  above  "the 
people  and  unanswerable  to  them  or  any  one  but  his  own  pri- 
vate board  of  directors.  This  board  contains  good  people 
mixed  with  the  creatures  of  privilege  who  always  control  it. 
It  is  not  generally  known  that  they  have  no  more  right  to  this 

X3O  than  has  the  superintendent  of  the  Crittenten  Home, 
the  Jewish  Consumptive  Home,  the  Catholic  orphanage,  the 
Protestant  orphanage,  or  any  other  charitable  or  religious  in- 
stitution. Yet  his  private  society  is  given  amazing  power  and 
money  by  the  state.  It  was  given  and  has  been  kept  largely  by 
these  political  influences  in  violation  of  the  solemn  mandates 
of  the  people  of  this  state.  Whitehead  is  named  and  kept  in 
office  by  the  private  board  of  directors  of  the  private  society; 

drawing  his  money  from  the  state,  he  is  even  given  the  right 

11 


to  use  in  his  circulars  attacking  the  court,  the  name  of  the  gov- 
ernor, the  attorney  general  and  superintendent  of  schools  of 
this  state,  whether  they  wish  it  or  not.  Other  humane  societies 
are  supported  'by  private  subscription  like  other  private  char- 
ities. 

Humane  Society  Dragged  into  Corrupt  Politics. 

No  one  objects  to  this  charitable  work.  But  we  do  ob- 
ject to  their  lawless  grants  and  political  power.  We  do  object 
to  this  work  being  dragged  into  politics  and  its  repeated  use 
for  pernicious  political  purposes.  For  no  such  amazing 
power  was  ever  before  given  to  any  private  corporate 
interest  to  be  used  as  it  has  been  repeatedly  used  for  the  politi- 
cal purposes  of  the  utility  corporations,  in  attempting  to  de- 
stroy those  who  have  fought  them.  It  was  these  men  and  their 
political  allies  who  suffered  most  from  the  story  known  as  "The 
Beast  and  the  Jungle,"  which  ran  in  "Everybody's  Magazine" 
for  nearly  a  year,  and  which  \vas  a  complete  expose  of  their 
methods  of  robbing  not  only  the  people  of  our  city  but  the  peo- 
ple of  all  cities.  In  this  fight  they  frequently  assumed  that  they 
were  the  city.  Whatever  was  said  about  their  methods  of  pil- 
lage, they  retorted  that  it  was  said  about  the  city  and  thus  the 
robbers  of  the  city  cunningly  sought  to  set  the  city  against  its 
defenders. 

Private  Charity  Used  by  Corruptionists. 

Whitehead,  as  one  of  the  "white  shirt  fronts  of  re- 
spectability," in  a  palliative  work  for  children  and  dumb  ani- 
mals, that  as  a  work  has  the  approval  of  every  right-minded 
person,  proved  to  be  one  of  their  most  effective  tools  in  our 
fights  against  them.  After  the  appearance  of  the  first  issue  of 
our  story  in  "Everybody's  Magazine,"  an  appeal  \vas  made  by 
one  Perry  Clay,  one  of  Boss  Evans'  notorious  henchmen,  to  the 
Humane  Society  to  have  Whitehead  make  an  attack  upon  the 
Judge  of  the  Juvenile  Court  of  Denver.  It  was  believed  that 
because  of  his  position  as  secretary  of  the  Humane  Society, 
that  is  supposed  to  protect  dumb  animals  and  children  (but  lias 
protected  best  the  Beasts  of  privilege),  it  would  have  much 
more  weight  than  if  made  directly  by  the  bosses  themselves. 

12 


\Yhitehead  willingly  accepted  the  commission  thus  asked  for 
by  the  corrupt  interests,  and  from  the  fall  of  1909,  when  the 
story  began,  down  to  date,  Whitehead  has  issued  circular  after 
circular  viciously  attacking  not  only  the  Juvenile  Court  of  Den- 
ver and  the  Judge  thereof,  but  insisting  that  ALL  juvenile  courts 
were  a  failure  and  the  kind  of  institutions  that  ought  to  be  abol- 
ished. Many  of  these  circulars  and  attacks  of  Whitehead  were 
republished  in  the  notorious  Boss  Evans'  "Clay's  Revie\\ 
Denver,  and  in  some  of  the  corporation  daily  newspapers  in 
league  with  them.  They  were  circulated  like  the  present  cir- 
culars, by  the  tens  of  thousands  all  over  4he  country.  This  has 
gone  on  during  the  past  four  or  five  years.  Each  attack  was 
promptly  answered,  its  falsity  demonstrated,,  until  \Yhitehead, 
as  a  tool  for  the  interests,  has  become  more  or  less  dulled.  In  his 
preparation  of  the  latest  circulars  it  thus  became  necessary  to 
hide  him  behind  the  skirts  of  a  "Woman's  League." 

After  the  Supreme  Court  had  rendered  a  decision  declaring 
the  law  for  the  protection  of  women  and  children  wage  earners 
unconstitutional,  because  of  its  faulty  title  and  construction,  the 
women's  clubs  with  the  assistance  of  the  Juvenile  Court  pre- 
sented to  the  legislature  a  child  labor  law  to  cover  the  constitu- 
tional defects  and  to  protect  thousands  of  children  laboring  in 
factory,  mill  and  mine  that  were  never  protected  before.  *  White- 
head's  bureau,  under  the  name  of  the  "Child  and  Animal  Pro- 
tection" Magazine,  immediately  pounced  on  that  bill.  A  short 
time  previous  they  circulated  pamphlets  all  over  the  state  that 
s  "no  cliild  labor  in  the  state  of  Colorado."  In  their 
pamphlets  they  bitterly  and  vindictively  abused  the  Judge  of  the 
Juvenile  Court  for  his  activity  for  adequate  child  labor  protec- 
tion. In  their  magazine  of  January,  1911,  that  was  delivered 
personally  to  every  member  of  the  legislature,  they,  boldly  pro- 
claimed : 


*It  is  referred  to  in  this  way  because  it  is  notoriously  known 
that  many  of  the  directors  never  attended  the  meetings.  That  for 
the  past  seven  years  the  society  has  been  under  the  control  of  the 
corporation  interests,  led  by  such  notorious  political  tools  as  Wilbur 
Cannon,  one  of  Boss  Evans'  servile  henchmen,  who  figured  in  the 
"Beast  and  the  Jungle"  stories.  There  is  also  a  minority  of  very 
respectable,  honest  people,  who  are  put  on  the  board  to  lend  it  re- 
spectability and  to  cover  up  Whitehead's  political  activities  in  behalf 
of  the  corrupt,  corporate  interests  of  the  state. 

13 


Crime  Against  Childhood. 

"THIS  BUREAU  IS  NOT  ANXIOUS  TO  HAVE  A 
CHILD  LABOR  LAW  ENACTED.  THE  PROBLEM  OF 
CHILD  IDLENESS  IS  FAR  MORE  SERIOUS  THAX 
CHILD  LABOR  IN  THIS  STATE."  And  all  this  notwith- 
standing members  of  the  Factory  Inspector's  office  had  issued 
signed  or  sworn  statements  disclosing  shocking  conditions  of 
child  labor  and  that  children  as  young  as  ten  years  of  age  had 
been  employed  in  the  coke  ovens  and  about  the  coal  mines. 
These  facts  disillusioned  any  of  us  who  had  before  believed 
there  was  no  child  labor  in  Colorado.  Yet  these  creatures  of 
privilege  that  would  defend  a  child  from  a  beating  by  a  brute, 
or  arrest  an  ignoi'ant  Italian  laborer  working  for  the  Colorado 
Fuel  and  Iron  Company,  for  beating  a  mule,  were,  by  every 
activity  known  to  shady  politics,  moving  heaven  and  earth  to 
defeat  this  effective  child  labor  law  to  prevent  corporations 
burning  out  the  lives  of  children  in  mines  and  coke  ovens.  As 
a  last  desperate  resort  to  defeat  a  genuine  law  they  proposed 
a  "fake"  child  labor  law  that  contained  the  same  constitutional 
defects  that  permitted  it  being  declared  unconstitutional.  BUT 
OUR  CHILD  LABOR  LAW  WAS  PASSED  IN  SPITE  OF 
THEM. 

Modern  Herods. 

All  people  applaud  their  acts  of  protecting  child  or  beast 
against  the  brutality  of  an  individual.  But  the  infamous  hy- 
pocrisy and  cowardic'e  of  it  all  is  that  this  spectacular  palliative 
sort  of  work  is  thus  used  to  cover  up  the  crimes  of  the  Herods 
of  this  state  who  are  putting  thousands  of  little  children  to  the 
modern  sword  of  greed  and  avarice. 

Complaints  of  Labor. 

Labor  unions  had  complained  time  and  again  of  its  political 
and  capitalistic  control,  they  claimed,  as  shown  by  the  pickets 
and  special  officers  bearing  the  badge  and  certificate  of  White- 
head's  Humane  society  in  violation  of  the  constitution. 
They  alleged  they  were  being  used  to  threaten  or  shoot  down 
laboring  men  in  the  various  strikes  and  conflicts  between  capital 
and  labor  in  Colorado. 

14 


Mothers  Compensation. 

When  the  mothers'  compensation  law  was  proposed,  that 
put  a  slight  tax  on  c'apital  in  the  interest  of  burdened  mother- 
hood, it  was  the  agents  of  this  society  that  viciously  opposed 
the  legislation  through  the  circulation  of  statements  as  reck- 
lessly false  as  the  circulars  of  the  Woman's  Protective  League. 

In  our  fights  for  eight  hour  laws,  employer's  compensatory, 
liability  and  accident  laws,  the  abolition  of  assumed  risks  and 
other  measures  really  designed  to  protect  the  American  home 
and  the  child  by  protecting  its  parents,  this  society  through  some 
of  its  agents  has  either  been  inactive  or  secretly  or  openly  in 
alliance  with  the  powers  of  privilege.  No  more  pernicious,  dan- 
gerous political  activity  has  ever  been  shown  by  any  secret  or 
political  organiaztion  in  this  state  than  this  society  in  fighting  the 
cause  of  the  people,  the  cause  of  justice  and  humanity.  In 
doing  this  they  have  masqueraded  behind  the  immediate  suffer- 
ings of  little  children  in  order  to  bolster  up  and  support  a  system 
of  infamy  and  injustice  that  is  robbing  thousands  of,  children 
of  their  birthright.  And  all  of  this  has  been  done  with  over 
$50,000  illegally  extracted  from  the  state  treasury  of  Colorado. 

Other  Contemptible  and  Shameless  Conduct. 

have  pointed  out  the  Farnsworth  case  used  by  Dr. 
Bates  in  her  first  circulars  to  reflect  on  the  Juvenile  Court  orr 
page  — .  This  is  an  illustration  of  how  Whitehead's  office  lent  * 
itself  through  inactivity  and  inaction  to  the  protection  of  a 
wealthy,  prominent,  ex-politician  and  office  holder,  and  to  room- 
wig  house  keepers  and  wine  rooms.  The  girl  that  Farnsworth 
offended  had  also  been  offended  by  these  various  creatures  of 
vice  against  whom  Whitehead's  office  made  not  one  single  move 
—unless  they  were  forced  to  by  the  threatened  lambasting  of 
the  Juvenile  Court. 

One  Law  for  the  Rich  Another  for  the  Poor. 

Another  kind  of  business  that  they  have  lent  themselves  to 
is  to  take  some  poor,  ignorant  foreigner  to  the  \Vest  Side  Crim- 
inal Court — deliberately  avoiding  bringing  the  c'ase  to  the  Juve- 
nile Court — in  order  that  the  Juvenile  Court  should  have  no 
credit  for  the  conviction;  and  being  without  any  defense, 

15 


without  friends  and  frightened  into  pleading  guilty,  it  would 
be  sure  of  conviction  and  add  to  their  records  in  the 
Criminal  Court,  that  they  are  constantly  trying  to  bolster 
up  in  order  to  issue  circulars  making  unfavorable  Comparisons 
with  the  work  of  the  Juvenile  Court.  This  is  done  to  bring- 
about  the  "psychological  condition"  to  destroy  the  Juvenile 
Court.  The  difficult  cases,  where  there  is  a  defense  by  able 
lawyers,  have  been  generally  brought  to  the  Juvenile  Court,  and 
an  acquittal  by  a  jury  or  a  dismissal  by  the  district  attorney  in 
such  a  case  is  Men  gloatingly  compared  with  the  conviction  of 
some  such  poor  devil  who  had  no  money  and  could  make  no 
defense  in  the  West  Side  Criminal  Court.  We  don't  object  to 
his  punishment,  but  we  object  to  cowardly  conduct  and  dis- 
criminations. For  years  they  knew  of  a  cas'e  on  the  docket  of 
that  court  against  a  relative  of  one  of  Boss  Evans'  most  noto- 
rious henchmen  for  outrageously  violating  a  little  girl,. but  not  a 
hand  did  they  lift  to  push  that  case  to  prosecution.  It  was 
quietly  dismissed  by  a  prosecuting  officer. 

Some  Discriminations. 

When  a  man  like  George  N.,  one  of  Whitehead's  officers, 
is  prosecuted  in  this  c'ourt  and  defended  by  counsel,  they  make 
no  effort  to  join  with  the  Juvenile  Court  officers  in  prosecuting 
him.  When  a  well  known  lawyer  who  was  formerly  connected 
with  one  of  the  biggest  corporation  law  offices  in  the  state  of 
Colorado  is  accused  at  Greeley  of  an  offense  against  a  little  girl, 
it  was  Whitehead  who,  by  every  means  in  his  power  and  that  of 
his  powerful  political  offic'e,  helped  to  secure  the  acquittal  of 
that  man  who,  if  the  charge  was  true,  ought  to  have  been 
punished. 

When  a  prominent  citizen  and  now  former  ex-governor 
of  the  state — through  a  very  bad  temper  that  he  is  known  to 
have — was  alleged  by  Whitehead  to  have  brutally  mistreated  a 
horse,  Whitehead  loudly  proclaimed  at  the  Juvenile  Court  in 
the  presence  of  witnesses  that  he  would  resign  from  the  society 
unless  that  big,  prominent  man  was  prosecuted  (just  the  same 
as  an  ignorant  Italian  in  the  coal  pits  of  the  Fuel  and  Iron 
Company  for  beating  a  mule).  But  the  president  of  White- 
head's  society  was  also  the  president  of  one  of  Denver's  big 

16 


four  utility  corporations.  He  called  Whitehead  on  the  c'arpet. 
In  the  language  of  the  politicians,  he  told  Whitehead  "where  to 
head  in."  Whitehead  knew  where  his  power  came  from  and  on 
which  side  his  bread  was  buttered.  The  facts  and  the  undis- 
puted records  are  that  the  case  was  then  dropped.  It  is  this 
outrageous  discrimination  and  pernicious  political  activity  of 
this  private  corporation  that  through  its  servile  tool  of  privilege, 
Whitehead,  made  it  a  stench  in  the  nostrils  of  the  people  who 
know  its  real  rec'ord. 

Betrayal  of  Women  and  Children. 

All  of  its  work,  however  meritorious — and  some  of  it  is 
very  meritorious — in  protecting  children  and  dumb  animals  from 
immediate  physical  violence,  is  as  nothing  compared  with  this 
brutal  betrayal  of  the  women  and  children  of  Colorado  when  it 
comes  to  the  greater  problems  of  social,  economic  and  industrial 
justice. 

Who  is  Dr.  Mary  Elizabeth  Bates. 

In  these  attacks  \Yhitehead  had  no  more  faithful  ally  and 
sympathizer  than  a  Dr.  Mary  Elizabeth  Bates.  She  is  the  only 
woman  member  of  the  Woman's  Protective  League.  On 
several  occasions  during  the  "Beast  and  the  Jungle"  political 
•s,  she  attacked  the  Juvenile  Court.  She  appeared  in  the 
District  Court  with  Whitehead  several  years  ago  in  one  of  the 
most  notorious  and  contemptible  of  these  attacks,  when  two  lit- 
tle girls  were  taken  out  of  a  home  on  a  habeas  corpus  writ 
against  the  wishes  of  their  parents  and  themselves,  in  order  that 
a  shameful,  contemptible  circular  could  be  issued  by  Whitehead 
and  "Clay's  Review,"  trying  to  convince  the  country  that  the 
Juvenile  Court  was  a  lawless  institution  and  did  not  respect  the 
rights  of  parents  and  children. 

Her  Former  Attacks  on  Court. 

On  another  occasion  Dr.  Bates  engineered  an  attack 
against  the  court  that  was  duly  chronicled  on  the  front 
page  of  the  corporation  newspapers  fighting  us.  She 
caused  to  be  resurrected  the  long  extinct  Board  of  County 

tors,  got  herself  appointed  as  chairman  and  claimed  that  as 

17 


such  chairman  she  was  entitled  to  be  notified  before  any  trial 
in  the  Juvenile  Court  could  be  heard.  Scarehead  statements 
then  appeared  in  print,  that  all  of  the  court  proceedings  were 
illegal  because  she  wasn't  notified,  and  then  when  we  invited 
her  to  come  to  all  trials  she  refused  to  come,  proving  her  plot 
was  to  hurt  the  court  by  the  notoriety  she  was  constantly  seek- 
ing. Two  attorneys  on  the  same  committee  with  Dr.  Bates 
resented  her  attacks  and  told  her  that,  as  to  the  law,  she  was 
wrong,  and  some  of  her  committee  threatened  to  resign,  and  we 
are  informed  afterwards  did  resign  because  of  the  reckless- 
ness and  injustice  of  her  attacks.  There  isn't  space  to  go  into 
the  details  of  these  past  attacks  made  by  the  same  influences 
using  the  same  people.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  that  they  all  fell 
flat,  or  died  a-borning;  but  this  was  not  until  after  much  an- 
noyance and  expense  in  showing  up  their  falsity. 

Notorious  Reputation  for  Recklessness. 

Dr.  Bates  acquired  the  habit  of  making  reckless,  evil 
charges  against  public  persons  or  institutions :  she  attacked  men 
like  the  Secretary  of  the  Anti-Saloon  League  in  his  fight  against 
vice;  against  institutions  like  the  County  Hospital,  the  County 
Commissioners  and  the  Old  Ladies'  Home.  No  better  example 
of  her  well  known  recklessness  in  notoriety  seeking  attacks 
could  be  offered  than  her  charges  against  the  Old  Ladies'  Home. 

In  March,  1911,  she  gave  wide  publicity  and  signed  her 
name  to  serious  charges  against  the  management  of  the  insti- 
tution, as  follows : 

"i.     Gross  mismanagement  of  the  entire  institution. 

2.  Abuse  of  and  cruelty  to  the  inmates,  mentally  and  phy- 
sically. 

3.  Dishonesty  of  management  and  employes. 

4.  Insufficient  help,  nurses. 

5.  Criminal  neglect  of  the  helpless,  sick  and  dying. 

6.  Improper  food,  badly  cooked,  badly  served,  many  times 
tainted  and  unfit  to  eat.  - 

7.  Obtaining  money  under  false  pretenses. 

8.  Selling  liquors  without  a  license. 

9.  Immorality  among  the  help  in  the  institution. 

10.  Graft. 

18 


Rules  for  admission  and  disnr  inmates  and  for 

their   government   \vhile    in   the    institution   are   harsh    and    in- 

and  permit  the  exercise  of  uncalled  for  hardships  and 

cruelty  to  the  helpless  and  infirm  inmates,  and  make  the  so-called 

"Home"  a  "Hell." 

natural  assumption  would  be  that  no  one  in  their  right 
mind  would  make  such  charges  without  careful  investigation 
and  some  evidence  upon  which  to  base  them. 

Convicted  of  Irresponsibility. 

On  March  20,  1911,  an  investigation  of  these  charges  was 
undertaken  by  the  State  Board  of  Charities  and  Corrections. 
The  board  is  composed  of  Rev.  Father  William  Q'Ryan,  Rabbi 
William  S.  Friedman,  Mr.  Lafayette  M.  Hughes  (son  of  the 
late  United  States  Senator  Hughes  of  Colorado),  Mrs.  Xettie 
E.  Caspar,  Airs.  Ella  S.  Williams,  and  former  Judge  William 
Thomas.  This  board  reported  that  "forty-eight  witnesses  were 
duly  sworn,  examined  and  heard  during  three  days,  consisting 
of  morning,  afternoon  and  evening  sessions." 

The  board  presented  its  report  to  the  Governor,  in  which 
it  found  that  the  evidenc  introduced  by  Dr.  Bates  on  behalf  of 
the  board  that  she  represented  when  she  made  the  charges  ffis 
wholly  insufficient  to  sustain  a  single  allegation"  and  "the 
board  finds  that  the  investigation  made  prior  to  the  presentation 
of  the  charges,  was  most  superficial  in  its  character,  and  is  sat- 
isfied that  if  the  serious  consideration  which  the  character  of  the 
charges  warranted  had  been  given,  they  would  have  been  found 
to  be  without  merit,  and  the  board  finds,  after  painstaking  in- 
vestigation of  the  conduct  of  the  Home,  that  its  physical  con- 
dition, its  management  and  care  of  the  inmates  are  excellent." 

The  Fakery  and  Hypocrisy  of  the  Attack. 

The  hypocrisy  of  this  whole  wretched  bluff  at  a  recall  and 
the  plot  against  the  Judge  of  the  Juvenile  Court  couldn't  be  more 
conclusively  shown  than  by  the  letters  and  confessions  of  Dr. 
Bates. 

Confessions  of  the  Opposition. 

Last  winter  (1912-13)  on  the  stationery  of  the  National 
Educational  Association,  to  lend  some  credit  to  herself,  Dr. 

19 


Bates  began  to  write  dozens  and  perhaps  hundreds  of  letters  to 
various  people  of  prominence  in  the  east,  making-  false  and 
sensational  charges  against  the  Juvenile  Court.  At  first  she  sent 
these  letters  to  prominent  suffragists.  To  poison  their  minds 
against  the  Court  she  enclosed  various  false  statements  and 
records  in  sex  cases.* 

Their  Appeal  to  Anti-Suffragists. 

The  suffragists  investigated  Dr.  Bates,  and  after  finding  out 
her  part  with  Whitehead  in  his  past  efforts  to  help  the  public 
service  corporations,  in  our  fights  against  them,  they  would  have 
nothing  to  do  with  her.  She  then  began  to  send  her  letters,  with 
the  same  character  of  alarming  enclosures  to  leading  anti-suf- 
fragist influences  and  newspapers  in  the  East.  She  sent  a  long 
appeal  to  the  New  York  Times.  She  sent  sensational  state- 
ments to  others  in  the  East  reflecting  on  the  women  of  Colorado 
and  those  who  have  championed  progressive  measures,  hoping 
thereby  to  invite  the  anti-suffragist  and  Tory  attitude  to  secure 
unpleasant  publicity  for  the  state  and  cheap  notoriety  for  her- 
self. But  even  the  temptation  of  a  sensational  story  on  her 
favorite  topic  was  not  sufficient  to  accomplish  her  purpose.  They 
would  have  nothing  to  do  with  her.  She  sent  her  letters  and 
circulars  to  prominent  Eastern  doctors  like  Dr.  Princ'e  A.  Mor- 
row and  others.  The  originals  and  copies  of  some  of  these 
letters  have  been  sent  or  shown  to  us  upon  a  number  of  occasions. 
She  stated  in  these  letters  that  "last  July"  (1912)  she  had 
"heard  of  the  efforts  of  the  Juvenile  Court  to  protect  men  who 
violated  the  chastity  of  girls."  Indeed,  she  says  she  had  been 
hearing  of  it  for  years.  To  quote  from  her  letters :  "I  had 
heard  from  time  to  time  for  some  years  of  cases,  apparently  not 
properly  handled  for  the  protection  of  children  in  the  Juvenile 
Court  but  now  (parenthesis  and  italic's  are  ours)  —  (in  July, 
1912) — I  thought  it  was  time  for  me  to  find  out  just  what  the 
Juvenile  Court  actually  did  do  in  such  cases.  It  seemed  fitting 
that  I  should  investigate  it.  I, copied  the  names,  charge,  days  of 

*It  is  known  in  Denver  that  most  of  Dr.  Bates'  time  is  taken  up  in 
agitating  some  phase  of  this  problem.  She  seems  to  have  regarded 
herself  as  divinely  appointed  to  regulate  the  race  in  Colorado  in  such 
matters.  At  every  legislature  she  appears  with  a  batch  of  bills  pre- 
scribing new  regulations  and  reforms  in  the  relations  of  the  sexes.. 

20 


reception   and  discharge  -from    the   Denver    County   Jail,    legal 
process,  age,  occupation,  disposition,  etc.,  of  every  c'ase  that 
handled  in  the  Juvenile  Court,  that  had  been   received  at   the 
Deri-  -rdy  Jail:'     She  then  goes  on  to  state  that  largely 

from  this  kind  of  a  "record"  in  sex  cases  she  found  a  ''shocking 
state  of  affairs" — as  to  the  Juvenile  Court./  She  drew  a  startling 
comparison.  She  found  in  the  Criminal!  Court  a  man  by  tbt 
name  of  Farnsworth  had  been  sent  to  the  penitentiary  for  ten 
years  for  rape;  whereas,  in  the  case  of  "a  man  by  the  name  of 
Kinsella  who  had  raped  three  girls  and  tried  in  the  Juvenile 
Court  where  Judge  Lindsey  did  nothing  until  the  third  victim, 
when  he  sent  the  man  to  the  reformatory  for  four  months." 

Their  Efforts  to  Shield  Guilty  Men  of  Wealth  and 
Political  Power. 

She  made  no  effort  to  find  out  that  there  was  a  prominent 
politician  and  wealthy  citizen — a  former  officer  and  official  of 
Denver  who  also  committed  an  offense  against  the  same  girl  that 
Farnsworth  had  violated,  and  that  the  Criminal  Court  had  done 
nothing  with  the  man  of  influence,  but  through  Whitehead's 
office  had  steered  him.  clear  of  the  Juvenile  Court  and  sent  the 
"poor  devil"  who  had  no  friends  or  influence  to  the  penitentiary, 
and  by  inaction  did  everything  they  could  to  protect  the  prom- 
inent citizen.  She  did  not  state  that  it  was  the  Juvenile  Court 
that  brought  that  prominent  citizen  before  the  bar  of  justice 
and  "lambasted"  Whitehead's  office  and  all  who  had  anything  to 
do  with  it  for  not  also  prosecuting  the  wealthy  prominent  citizen, 
former  politician  and  office  holder.  She  discovered  this  later 
and  she  and  Whitehead  very  carefully  eliminated  it  from  their 
second  edition  of  circulars. 

The  Truth  About  their  Comparisons. 

Of  course,  her  statement  about  this  "man"  Kinsella  having 
raped  three  girls  was  absolutely  false.  The  court  rec'ords,  testi- 
mony and  evidence  show  that  in  two  of  the  cases  against  this  boy 
of  17  the  girls  swore  that  he  had  no  such  improper  relations 
with  them,  and  the  district  attorney  dismissed  the  cases;  and  in 
one  of  the  cases  where,  through  the  administrative  work  of  the 
court,  he  was  found  guilty,  he  got  the  very  extreme  penalty  that 

21 


the  court  is  permitted  to  impose  against  one  under  twenty-one 
years  of  age,  as  hereafter  .pointed  out  in  this  pamphlet. 

Why  the  Charges   Were   Concealed   Until   After 
Two  Elections. 

But  she  goes  on  to  state  that  from  this  kind  of  a  "record" 
in  sex  cases,  it  was  very  important  to  get  after  the  Judge  of  the 
Juvenile  Court.  He  had  to/stand  for  re-election  within  four 
months  from  July,  1912,  at  .the  November  election  of  1912,  and 
go  through  a  primary  election  preceding  the  general  election. 
So  she  proceeds :  "I  interviewed  many  lawyers  BEFORE  and 
AFTER  the  nominating  primaries  and  I  could  not  find  one  who 
would  or  who  knew7  of  one  who  would  dare  run  the  gamut  of 
villification  sure  to  be  visited  upon  them  by  the  three  news- 
papers— News,  Post  and  Er press — that  play  the  game  of  the 
Judge  for  the  added  power  it  gives  them."  Concealing  half  the 
truth  which  makes  the  other  half  worse  than  a  lie,  she  did  not 
tell  her  correspondents  and  the  eastern  papers  that  there  wasn't 
the  slightest  trouble  in  getting  an  opposition  candidate,  and  that 
there  was  an  opposition  candidate  supported  by  the  Denver 
Republican  and  the  Denver  Times,  and  that  neither  the  News, 
Post  or  the  Express  uttered  one  word  of  ''villification"  against 
that  candidate  who  received  less  than  eleven  thousand  votes  out 
of  fifty-eight  thousand  cast  for  the  office,  and  the  present  judge 
of  the  Juvenile  Court  was  elected  by  35,000  majority.  In  her 
desperate  efforts  to  get  the  anti-suffragists  and  newspapers  in 
the  East  to  take  up  her  slanders  against  Denver  and  the  women 
of  Denver,  she  did  not  explain  the  reasons  why  those  who  hide 
behind  her  were  willing  to  burden  themselves  with  the  crime  of 
withholding  these  "horrible  conditions"  from  th-.- 
Denver. 

Why  a  Recall  Election   When    They   Concealed 

Their  Charges  Before  Several  Regular 

Elections. 

They  had  every  chance  without  the  necessity  of  added  ex- 
pense for  a  "rec'all"  election  to  have  tried  them  all  out  before  the 
people.  And  they  had  this  opportunity  during  four  years  within 

22 


'me  the  Judge  of  the  Court  ran  at  elections  four  times 
and  for  appointment  one  time.* 

Why  They  Cowardly  Dodged  the  Issue. 

During  all  of  this  time  they  confess  ii)  these  private  cir- 
culars that  they  knew  these  "facts."  Why  did  they  dodge  the 
Because  there  was  no  such  issue.  There  was  nothing  in 
their  charges.  And  they  knew  it.  Otherwise,  these  people  are 
deserving  of  the  severest  condemnation  from  the  people  of  the 
city  of  Denver  for  withholding  all  of  these  horrible  discoveries 
through  four  elections. 

Their  Threat  to  Recall   the   Judge  is  for  Outside 

Consumption. 

There  is  no  more  sincerity  than  truth  in  their  wholesale 
circulars  spread  over  the  country  that  the  Judge  of  the  court  is 
to  be  recalled.  They  know  that  he  is  not  to  be  recalled.  They 
know  that  they  haven't  the  slightest  intention  of  starting  any 
genuine  movement  for  a  recall.  They  have  had  four  months  to 

r  and  so  far  they  have  not  even  started  a  petition  or  secured 
a  signature.  If  they  used  the  money  they  have  to  use  to  get  the 
12,000  signatures  to  put  the  Judge  to  another  election  they 
know  they  would  be  ''licked  out  of  their  boots/' 

Opposition  Already  Publicly  Convicted  of  Dishonesty. 

Thus  they  stand  convicted  of  the  hypocrisy  and  fakery  with 
which  they  have  been  charged.  Their  only  possible  purpose 
could  be  the  purpose  that  our  friends  have  urged,  namely,  one 
of  the  ever  recurring  attacks  that  have  gone  on  for  the  past  six 
years.  T'^se  are  intended  primarily  to  harrass  and  annoy  the 
Judge  and  impoverish  him  as  far  as  possible  in  health  and  in 
purse,  and  minister  to  their  vindictiveness  and  hate.  It  is  a  note- 
worthy fact  that  while  they  have  outrageously  exaggerated  the 
absences  of  the  Judge  from  Denver,  they  always  take  advantage 

*This  was  because  of  the  expense  he  has  been  put  to  unnecessarily 
through  the  mooted  legal  question  as  to  whether  his  office  is  a  county 
office  or  a  state  office — the  politics  of  the  situation  compelling  him  to 
run  at  both  elections,  for  they  are  held  at  different  periods  of  the  year. 
The  result  has  been  the  Judge  has  stood  for  election  seven  times  and 
appointed  three  times  in  twelve  years.  He  was  elected  every  time  with 
ever  increasing  majorities. 

23 


of  such  absences  by  making  these  periodical  attacks.  The  pecu- 
liar conditions  and  causes  of  his  recent  absence  from  Denver 
seemed  at  first  to  afford  the  kind  of  opportunity  they  generally 
embrace.  The  Judge  was  c'onfined  during  May  and  June  in  the 
Battle  Creek  Sanitarium,  following  a  threatened  nervous  break- 
down from  which  he  had  been  suffering  for  several  months. 

A  Cowardly  Advantage  of  False  Alarms. 

There,  on  the  advice  of  the  doctors,  the  Judge  underwent 
an  operation,  but  that  operation  was  much  exaggerated  by  the 
newspapers.  During  all  of  his  illness  at  the  Sanitarium,  he  was 
not  confined  in  bed  for  much  more  than  two  weeks  in  all — abou' 
a  week  from  the  operation,  and  later  an  additional  week  from 
fever.  He  was,  nevertheless,  in  such  a  state  of  health  that  his 
physicians  ordered  several  months  of  quiet  and  rest.  Surely, 
this  was  not  an  unlikely  state  of  affairs  after  a  ten  years'  strug- 
gle against  the  powers  of  Special  Privilege,  without  as  much  as 
a  week's  vacation.  The  Judge's  vacation  periods,  as  is  well 
known,  were  taken  up  by  his  lecture  work  that  offered  little 
chance  for  rest. 

Their  Change  of  Front. 

But  the  exaggerated  reports  of  the  seriousness  of  the 
Judge's  condition  were  no  doubt  haled  by  the  enemy  as  a  proper 
time  to  make  their  attack.  They  afterwards  discovered,  that 
while  the  Judge  was  on  the  verge  of  a  breakdown,  his  illness  was 
by  no  means  as  serious  as  some  of  the  newspapers  reported,  and 
only  a  period  of  rest  and  quiet  was  required  for  him  to  get  back 
his  strength.  But  having  shot  their  bolt  and  found  their  mis- 
take, they  then  sought  to  cover  up  the  infamy  of  falsely  attack- 
ing him,  when  they  thought  he  was  stricken  down,  by  circ'ulat- 
ing  the  story  that  the  Judge  was  not  ill  at  all,  and  that  there  was 
no  occasion  for  his  absence,  though  his  breakdown  was  known 
to  be  certified  to  by  eminent  specialists.  This  was  due,  in  part, 
to  the  fact  that  the  Judge,  who  suffers  frightfully  from  hay 
fever-asthma  in  Denver  during  July  and  August,  was  ordered 
by  his  doctors  not  to  attempt  to  stay  in  Denver  during  those  two 

months. 

24 


Absences  Justifiable  and  Proper. 

Being  entirely  free  from  this  malady  in  Pennsylvania,  and 
needing  money  to  pay  bills,  many  of  which  had  accumulated  on 
account  of  the  campaign  and  battles  against  these  powers  of 
Special  Privilege,  he  had,  again  against  the  advice  of  his  doctors, 
but  free  from  the  asthma  attacks,  endeavored  to  carry  on  his 
lectures  during  July  and  August  when  most  of  jthe  other  Judges 
are  away  and  when  the  Judges  by  all  c'ustom  have  every  right 
to  be  on  their  vacations,  or  use  such  vacation  time  as  the  Judge 
of  the  Juvenile  Court  has  ever  used  it  for  the  advancement  in 
the  nation  of  the  cause  that  he  has  tried  to  help.  These  condi- 
tions of  illness  and  circumstance  kept  the  Judge  of  the  Juvenile 
Court  absent  from  Denver  in  1913  for  five  months  and  twelve 
days. 

Absence  Due  to  Illness. 

But  more  than  four  months  of  the  time  was  absolutely 
necessary  on  account  of  illness,  as  certified  to  by  his  physicians. 
These  were  the  conditions  that  seemed  to  favor  our  old  enemies, 
employing  again,  as  in  the  past,  the  known  recklessness,  jealousy, 
hate  and  vindictiveness  of  Dr.  Bates  and  Whitehead  to  try  for 
the  tenth  time  their  old  game  "to  get"  the  Judge  of  the  Juvenile 
Court  of  Denver.  And  such  is  a  statement  of  the  facts  as  to  the 
character  of  the  enemy,  the  circ'umstances  of  their  latest  attacks, 
and  their  degrading  hypocrisy.* 

NOTE:  One  of  the  amusing  episodes  of  their  insincerity  is  the 
fact  that  when  the  Judge  is  away  from  Denver,  he  is  constantly  attacked 
by  these  enemies  for  not  being  at  home  doing  what  they  say,  when  he 
is  at  home,  he  is  unfit  to  do.  Of  course,  other  Judges  have  also  been 
away  for  equal  lengths  of  time  on  .their  vacations.  Many  of  them  have 
been  away  on  account  of  illness  from  six\o  nine  months.  So  far  as  we 
are  advised  in  these  cases,  the  taxpayers  pay  for  the  assistants  who 
take  their  place.  When  the  Judge  of  the  Juvenile  Court  has  been  away 
it  has  not  been  at  the  expense  of  the  taxpayers.  He  pays  his  assistant 
out  of  his  own  pocket.  He  is  working  for  the  public  and  promoting 
the  cause  of  childhood  and  humanity  and  trying  to  get  the  funds  to  carry 
on  his  fight.  In  the  cases  of  other  Judges,  who  quietly  take  their 
vacations  and  do  no  more  than  is  expected  of  them,  there  is  never  one 
"clack"  or  one  ''yelp."  But  in  the  case  of  the  Juvenile  Judge,  no  pack 
of  wolves  have  kept  up  a  more  constant  storm  of  howls  from  the  time 
he  assailed  the  causes  and  conditions — the  Beasts  of  Privilege  and 
injustice — that  make  for  misery,  poverty  and  crime.  When  the  Judge 
did  nothing  but  deal  with  palliatives  and  "let  them  alone"  his  life  was 
one  round  of  joy  and  comfort.  He  had  no  better  boosters  then  than 
those  who  now  constantly  attack  him. 

25 


Framed-Up  Committees  and  Hostile  Busybodies. 

In  struggles  of  this  kind  in  which  the  Judge  of  the  Juvenile 
Court  has  been  engaged,  it  is  not  difficult  to  get  some  paper 
organization,  or  one  without  standing  or  credit,  to  secure  some 
notoriety-seeking  individual  to  join  in  a  frame-up  of  charges 
like  those  contained  in  these  circulars.  But  the  court  will  not  be 
bound  by  the  conclusions  of  any  such  an  organization,  or  others 
more  substantial,  that  are  sometimes  as  easily  controlled  by  its 
enemies.  It  will  treat  with  contempt  further  attacks  from  such 
sources.  If  it  did  not  do  so,  there  would  be  no  time  to  carry  on 
its  work.  It  is  absolutely  unreasonable  to  expect  any  court  to 
be  constantly  submitting  to  'groups  of  hostile  "busybodies," 
whose  only  purpose  in  delving  into  these  cases  is  to  injure  the 
court  and  its  judge,  or  curry  favor  with  its  enemies. 

A  Better  Reason  for  this  Pamphlet. 

It  is  only  for  the  reasons  already  mentioned  that  we  have 
concluded  to  answer  their  charges  in  this  instance.  It  is  also 
because  it  affords  a  splendid  opportunity  to  show  up  a  phase  of 
the  court's  work  not  generally  known,  namely,  a  wonderful  in- 
crease in  efficiency  in  the  enforcement  of  laws  for  the  protection 
of  girls. 

The  Truth  About  the  Sex  Cases. 

In  the  year  1895  a  ^aw  was  passed  in  Colorado,  known  as 
"the  age  of  consent  law."  The  age  was  fixed  at  eighteen  years. 
No  defense  was  permitted  on  account  of  the  character  of  the 
female.  In  1907  the  law  was  revised,  making  no  substantial 
change  in  this  feature,  but  adding  many  complicated  details,  that 
instead  of  relieving  the  difficulties  hereafter  pointed  out,  only 
added  to  them.  The  Judge  of  the  Juvenile  Court  of  Denver  has 
always  been  one  of  those  who  heartily  favors  the  general  princi- 
ples of  this  law.  He  has  sent  rapists  to  the  penitentiary,  and 
would  put  them  all  in  stripes  for  life  if  that  could  be  doae,  and  if 
it  was  me  best  way  to  secure  the  protection  of  females  against  the 
varying  sins  of  the  sex  instinct.  But  we  found  it  couldn't  be  done 
that  way — at  least,  in  every  case,  as  the  enemy  pretends  to  de- 
mand. There  never  was  a  better  illustration  of  the  fact,  well 
known  to  prosecuting  officers,  that  the  very  severity  of  a  law 

26 


may  be  its  own  undoing.  In  effect  in  nearly  every  case  under 
this  law  where  a  man  was  convicted  it  meant  a  penitentiary  sen- 
tence of  from  three  to  twenty  years.  Little  or  no  alternative 
was  offered.  Men  under  twenty -one  could  be  sent  to  the  states 
prison,  known  as  the  reformatory,  that  so  far  as  its  character  is 
concerned  doesn't  differ  materially  from  the  penitentiary  itself. 
There  was  practically  no  defense  under,  this  law  except  a  denial 
of  the  act.  It  made  no  difference  what  the  character  of  the  fe- 
male might  be,  no  matter  what  the  circumstances  might  be,  so 
of  course  there  were  many  cases  of  blackmail. 

Difficulties  in  these  Cases. 

There  were  some  cases  where  for  many  other  reasons  where 
the  facts  were  such  that  the  absurdity  of  sending  the  offender  to 
the  penitentiary  was  at  once  apparent  to  juries,  officers  and  courts. 
Most  of  them  in  our  court  were  between  boys  and  girls  where 
ignorance,  neglect  of  training  and  culpability  often  existed  in  the 
case  of  both  of  them.  No  two  cases  were  alike.  It  was  cus- 
tomary with  some  district  attorneys  to  file  only  such  cases  where 
it  appeared  there  was  a  reasonable  chance  of  a  conviction,  even 
though  the  offense  was  believed  to  have  occurred.  It  also  grew 
to  be  the  custom  that  only  those  cases  9onsidered  as  "cinch" 
cases,  where  the  defense  was  weak  or  the  case  of  the  state  was 
one  of  violence  or  exceptionally  strong,  that  they  were  even  tried 
at  all.  It  was  known  that  even  with  the  best  of  juries,  often 
deprived  of  any  testimony  of  the  character  of  the  girl,  with  sus- 
picions concerning  her  past,  there  was  either  a  verdict  of  ac- 
quittal or  a  refusal  to  agree.  As  shown  in  the  attached  table 
of  cases  in  the  \Yest  Side  Crinminal  Court  of  Denver,  from 
January  i,  1901,  to  May  i,  1913,  there  were  filed  and  disposed  of 

:ases  of  rape,  or  assault  to  rape.  Only  39  were  even  tried  by 
a  jury.  Of  the  39  tried  for  rape  and  assault  to  rape,  more  than 
half  were  found  not  guilty.  Only  twenty-two  out  of  IJ2 — less 
than  15  per  cent — received  any  punishment  whatever,  i  he 
table  shows  the  Juvenile  Court  record  is  from  100  per  cent  to 
500  per  cent  superior  in  efficiency  in  these  cases. 


27 


The  Rule  of  Reasonable  Doubt. 

There  was  the  rule  of  reasonable  doubt,  which  every 
court  had  to  explain  to  the  jury  under  the  constitution  and 
the  law;  and  if  the  attorney  for  the  defense  could  raise 
a  suspicion  of  blackmail,  or  urge  upon  the  jury:  "What  is  the 
use  of  ruining  this  young  man  by  states  prison  sentence  for  his 
mistake  with  a  girl  that  may  be  of  questionable  character  or  rep- 
utation; what  is  the  use  of  ruining  this  man's  home,  his  wife 
and  his  children  when  there  may  be  a  doubt  about  his  guilt?" 
And  even  if  they  were  guilty,  the  same  reasons  were  constantly 
advanced.  I  am  not  saying  they  were  right  in  this  attitude. 
Generally  they  were  not,  though  there  was  much  reason  for  it  in 
some  cases.  There  did  seem  to  be  a  fundamental  error  is  as- 
suming as  this  law  assumed,  and  relentlessly  insisted,  that  the 
only  way  to  settle  all  of  these  troubles  ivas  through  a  peniten- 
tiary sentence. 

Editorial  from  the  Denver  Times. 

For  example,  in  the  Denver  Times  of  Sunday,  September 
14,  1913,  there  is  an  editorial  by  Dr.  Frank  Crane  from  which 
we  quote  the  following  excerpts : 

"It  is  hard,  it  is  almost  impossible,  for  advocates  of  a 
change  in  custom  or  government  to  get  out  from  under  a 
charge  which  has  worn  down  to  a  platitude. 

The  average  man  refuses  to  think,  when  he  can  get  his 
thinking  ready-made. 

For  instance,  we,  who  believe  that  prisons  and  punish- 
ments are  wrong,  are  generally  classed  with  the  sentimental 
perverts  who  pet  criminals,  with  the  woman  who  carry 
boquets  to  murderers,  weep  over  the  sad  lot  of  burglars 
that  have  been  justly  laid  by  the  heels,  and  want  to  feed 
them  pie. 

Allow  us,  therefore,  to  clearly  state  our  point  of  view. 

We  are  not  opposed  to  the  present  prison  system  be- 
cause of  pity  for  jailbirds.  We  are  sorry  for  them,  as  any 
human  being  is  sorry  io  witness  suffering,  but  if  their  pun- 
ishment were  good  for  them  or  for  society  at  large  we 
would  gladly  applaud  their  stripes. 

28 


But  our  position  is  this :     That  the  facts  in  the  case 
prove  beyond  any  reasonable  doubt  that  the  theory  of  pun- 
ishment is  both  impotent  for  good  and  fruitful  of  evil. 
Why  do  we  punish  a  thief  or  robber,  for  example?     For 
three  reasons  only. 

First — To  protect  the  community  against  him.  We 
incarcerate  him,  shave  his  head,  put  him  at  hard  labor,  iso- 
late him,  or  even  hang  him,  so  that  innocent  citizens  may 
be  safe  from  his  pernicious  activities. 

Second — We  punish  him  to  'teach  him  a  lesson/  to 
change  him  and  make  him  an  honest  man. 

Third — It  is  also  to  give  an  example  to  other  evil- 
doers and  by  fear  to  dissuade  them  from  crime. 

All  very  well.  The  only  trouble  is,  that  sending  a  man 
to  the  penitentiary  does  not  result  in  any  of  these  benefits. 

As  a  rule,  which  any  intelligent  prison  keeper  will 
verify,  the  convict  who  has  served  time  comes  back  to  so- 
ciety a  worse  criminal  than  when  he  went  Jo  prison.  From 
being  an  ordinary  man,  who  committed  a  crime  by  impulse,. 
he  has  become  a  member  of  the  hardened  criminal  class  and 
is  a  greater  menace  to  the  commonwealth  than  ever. 

As  a  rule,  instead  of  prison  changing  him  to  an  hon- 
est man,  it  makes  him  a  more  vicious  man.  It  destroys 
the  little  good  character  he  had. 

And,  as  a  rule,  instead  of  his  punishment  deterring 
others  it  psychologically  develops  more  criminals. 

Why,  therefore,  keep  up  a  system  that  is  proved  by 
experience  and  reason  to  work  precisely  contrary  to  what 
we  expected  it  to  work? 

It  is  a  pleasure  to  note  that  the  more  intelligent  of  the 
lawyers  themselves  are  with  us.  At  least  they  cannot  be 
accused  of  maudlin  sentimentality.  At  a  recent  meeting 
of  the  Amercan  Bar  association  at  Montreal,  at  which  ses- 
sion William  H.  Taft  was  chosen  president,  Mr.  Moorfield 
Storey  of  Massachusetts  declared  the  American  penal  sys- 
tem a  failure. 

'Our  prisons  are  manufactories  of  criminals,  and  it  is 
time  we  changed  our  w^hole  method  of  dealing  with  con- 
victs." 

29 


The  Denver  Times  is  said  to  be  owned  by  Boss  Evans,  and 
this  leadng-  editorial  cannot  be  said  to  be  inspired  by  the  Juvenile 
Court.  But  much  of  it  is  in  line  with  enlightened  public  senti- 
ment and  advanced  criminology. 

A  Lesson  in  Violence. 

The  daily  papers  recently  teem  with  accounts  of  the  terrible 
murderer — one  Spencer.  The  following  excerpts  from  his  pub- 
lished testimony  may  be  of  interest: 

"I  got  my  first  prison  term  shortly  after  running 
away  from  school.  The.  prosecutor  and  Judge  wanted 
me  to  plead  guilty  and  take  a  sentence  of  thirty  days,  but 
my  lawyer  said  no.  He  said  fight  it  out,  and  I  pleaded 
not  guilty.  I  got  ten  years.  If  there  ever  was  any  good 
in  me  that  killed  it.  I  served  a  full  term.  I  lost  two 
years  good  time  coming  to  me  because  I  attacked  a  guard. 
They  strung  me  up  by  the  arms  and  starved  me ;  they  put 
me  in  solitary  too.  I  think  it  was  the  solitary  that  really 
got  me.  When  I  came  out  I  wanted  blood — anybody's 
blood.  I  wanted  to  kill  people  and  see  it  run.  They  gave 
me  ten  dollars  when  they  turned  me  loose,  and  eight  of 
that  I  spent  for  a  gun.  I  have  been  killing  people  more 
or  less  ever  since." 

So  much   for  violence  and  vengeance  alone.     How  much 
'  did  the  state  have  to  do  with  those  killings  ? 

Probation  Policy  in  Other  Courts. 

A  judge  of  one  of  the  leading  Juvenile  courts  in  the  coun- 
try— Judge  Curtis  D.  Wilbur  of  Los  Angeles — stated  in  the  Ju- 
venile Court  of  Denver  only  recently,  that  he  knew  of  one  hun- 
dred of  these  sex  cases  where  the  defendants  were  guilty  being 
put  on  probation  in  just  recent  times,  and  that  the  result 
was  far  more  convictions,  far  less  degradation  of  the 
unfortunate  girl,  who  formerly  was  dragged  through  the 
mire  of  publicity  only  to  see  the  offender  go  scot  free  be- 
cause of  the  severity  of  the  law.  Whereas,  under  the  more  en- 
lightened procedure,  there  was  generally  some  punishment 
meted  out  through  exposure  and  conviction;  generally  some 


sort  of  a  jail  sentence;  and  in  severe  cases  where  the  facts  war- 
ranted it,  as  shown  by  the  records  of  the  Juvenile  Court  of  Den- 
:nany  more  offenders  sent  to  states  prison  than  could  have 
been  sent  without  the  new  alternative  and  more  enlightened 
procedure. 

Probation  and  Sex  Cases. 

To  confirm  Judge  Wilbur,  we  wrote  the  Chief  Probation 
Officer  of  Los  Angeles  for  a  sample  of  their  record  in  sex 

5,  and  the  number  found  guilty  and  put  on  probation.  Un- 
der date  of  September  27th,  1913,  the  Chief  Probation  Offi- 
cer of  Los  Angeles,  Hugh  C.  Gibson,  writes : 

"This  information  was  handed  to  me  yesterday  by 
District  Attorney  Fredericks,  and  his  report  reads : 

"  'I  have  your  request  for  information,  or  rather 
the  request  through  you  of  the  Honorable  Ben  B.  Lind- 
sey,  for  information  "as  to  the  number  of  sex  cases 
that  have  been  put  on  probation  in  Los  Angeles  in  the 
last  four  or  five  years." 

"'I  have  gone  back  to  October  ist,  1911.  and  find 
as  follows : 

"  'In  the  Juvenile  Court,  out  of  345  cases.  149 
were  put  on  probation.'  ' 

From  the  tables  in  this  pamphlet,  then,  it  will  be  seen  that 
of  126  sex  cases  filed  in  Denver's  Juvenile  Court  in  four 
years  and  four  months,  only  a  little  over  twenty-five  per  cent 
were  given  probation  and  practically  all  of  those  made  to  serve 
some  jail  sentence.  In  Los  Angeles,  in  less  than  two  years — 
from  October  i,  1911,  to  September,  1913 — nearly  one-half  of 
all  the  sex  cases  filed  were  placed  on  probation. 

The  Success  of  Probation. 

Judge  Wilbur  told  us  that  out  of  a  thousand  general  cases 

put  on  probation  in  Los  Angeles,  a  recent  report  had  showrn  that 

r  hie  "hundred  and  seventy  of  them  had  been  largely  redeemed  to 

after  having  been  made  to  feel  the  effects  of  exposure 

;'ering  the  mortification  of  their  condemnation.     It  had 

y  taught  them  a  lesson,  but  had   furnished  in  a  more 

31 


satisfactory  manner  the  protection  to  which  the  community  is 
entitled,  that  should  be  the  first  consideration  in  the  disposition 
of  all  these  cases. 

If  the  jury  knows  that  in  certain  of  these  cases  there  is  some 
alternative  besides  sending  a  man  or  boy  to  the  penitentiary 
they  are  much  more  likely  to  convict,  and  the  Judge,  in  the  end, 
much  more  able  to  send  men  to  the  penitentiary  who  ought  to 
be  sent  there,  that  under  the  old  system  went  scot  free. 

A  business  organization  of  Chicago  reported  that  before 
the  Juvenile  Court  came  there  seventy-five  out  of  every  hun- 
dred boys  brought  to  jail  returned  to  jail  within  five  years. 

Failure  of  Penitentiary  as  Only  Remedy. 

Ex-Governor,  and  now  U.  S.  Senator  Shafroth  has  fur- 
nished us  with  a  signed  letter  in  which  he  says  that  seventy-five 
out  of  every  hundred  men  in  our  penitentiary  had  been  1 
before.  It  is  approved  by  our  excellent  warden  of  the  State  pen- 
itentiary, Tom  Tynan.  Thus  we  have  the  positive  evidence  that 
the  effect  of  such  procedure  in  most  cases  was  to  make  a  worse 
offender,  and  society  a  worse  victim. 

Juvenile  Court^ISentences  to  Penitentiary. 

Notwithstanding  this  fact  the  Juvenile  Court  of  Denver, 
and  its  Judge,  believes  in  severe  sentences  for  certain  types  of 
rapists  and  violators  of  children,  and  we  have  given  them  sen- 
tences of  from  ten  years  to  life  imprisonment.  But  having  ob- 
served these  facts,  with  great  difficulty,  much  misunderstanding 
and  misrepresentation,  but  seeking  always  to  do  the  best  thing 
for  the  protection,  especially  of  girl  children,  we  have  endeav- 
ored faithfully  to  bring  about  a  better  system.  We  are  not 
pretending  that  all  has  yet  been  done  that  we  expect  to  do,  and 
are  trying  to  do,  to  bring  about  this  system.  But  we  are  strug- 
gling to  that  end.  We  invoke  the  authority  in  proper  cases  of 
suspending  sentence  and  submitting  the  accused  to  some  sort 
of  probation  in  certain  cases  that  will  be  described.  We  sought 
for  years  to  get  probation  laws  and  probation  officers 
to  help  in  this  work. 


32 


Their  Hate  Hurt  Women  and  Children. 

\Ye  were  fought  at  every  turn  by  the  powers  of  privilege 
and  by  the  Boss  Evans-Whitehead-Bates  element.  It  was  not  so 
much  that  they  opposed  some  of  these  laws,  but  from  sheer  hate 
and  habit  of  fighting  those  who  proposed  them,  they  killed  them 
whenever  they  could.  They  cared  nothing  for  unfortunate 
women  or  girls  so  long  as  they  could  thwart  any  purpose  of 

the  objects  of  their  hatred. 

i 

Interference  of  Opposition  With  Good  Work. 

They  succeeded  only  recently  in  having  the  governor 
of  the  state  veto  an  up-to-date  probation  law,  providing 
for  paid  probation  offic'ers.  That  law  meant  the  saving  of 
many  girls.  It  assured  an  especial  protection  of  mothers 
of  girls  from  deserting  husbands,  and  the  collection  from 
indifferent  fathers  of  thousands  of  dollars  for  the  support 
of  neglected  children.  This  work  has  been  done  with  great 
success  in  other  states,  but  just  as  it  was  on  the  verge 
of  being  established  here  by  the  Juvenile  Court  and  its  friends 
it  was  stricken  down  by  the  influences  back  of  the  Evans-White- 
head-Bates crowd.  But  notwithstanding  the  constant  opposi- 
tion, handicaps  and  difficulties  through  which  we  have  had  to 
go  to  get  established  the  constructive  work  for  the  real  protec- 
tion of  girls,  a  great  deal  has  been  accomplished  through  the 

le  of  Denver,  who  have  helped  and  backed  the  Juvenile 
Court,  and  in  spite  of  Whitehead  and  Bates  we  succeeded  in 
getting  jurisdiction  to  try  many  such  cases  in  thd  Juvenile  Court. 
This  jurisdiction  was  secured  against  the  bitter  opposition  of 
Boss  Evans'  henchmen  only  six  years  ago  (July.  1907). 

Cases  Mostly  Boys  and  Young  Men. 

During  the  four  years  that  cover  the  great  majority  of  such 
cases  that  have  thus  come  to  the  Juvenile  Court  there  were  126 
cases  of  rape,  or  assault  to  rape,  filed  in  the  court.  The  great  ma- 
jority of  them  are  against  boys  or  young  men  under  twenty-one 
years  of  age.  There  is  appended  a  table  of  these  cases.  Be- 
cause of  the  innocence  of  many  of  those  involved,  because  of 
the  happy  homes  that  have  come  from  probation  work  with 

33 


many  of  them  that  would  be  a  crime  to  publicly  involve,  no 
effort  is  made,  as  in  the  Woman's  Protective  League  circulars, 
to  recklessly  divulge  names. 

Wrong  Impressions  Created  by  Use  of  the  Term  "Rape." 

To  have  any  kind  of  just  appreciation  of  these  cases  it 
must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  old  term  "rape,"  as  a  definition, 
has  undergone  many  changes.  This  term  as  formerly  used 
in  the  statutes  referred  to  a  case  where  a  male  person,  with 
force  or  violence,  had  improper  relations  with 'a  female.  This 
old  or  conventional  idea  of  rape  that  brought  to  mind  some 
scoundrel  who  waylaid  and  ravished  some  innocent  girl,  has 
never  applied  so  far  as  any  of  us  c'an  recall  to  a  single  one  of  the 
cases  we  have  had  in  the  Juvenile  Court.  In  a  word,  accord- 
ing to  this  old  idea  and  definition,  we  haven't  had  any  cases 
of  "rape"  in  the  Juvenile  Court.*  Denver  has  been  singularly 
free  from  such  monsters  and  such  cases;  and  there  isn't  more 
than  one  case  in  thirty  where  the  boy  or  man  can  be  said  to 
have  used  any  violent  tactics. 

Colorado  Ahead  of  Other  States. 

In  many  states  these  cases  are  not  statutory  crimes  at  all 
if  the  female  consenting  is  over  thirteen  years  of  age,  or  is  of 
previous  unchaste  or  immoral  character.  In  some  states  where, 
with  force  and  violence  and  against  her  consent,  such  a  female 
is  raped  and  the  offender  is  hung  or  shot,  it  is  no  crime  at  all 
under  the  law,  if  it  was  with  a  white  man  and  she  consented  to  it, 
or  in  other  states,  if  consenting,  she  was  of  previous  unchaste 
or  immoral  character. 

The  Term  "Rape"  as  Used  in  Colorado. 

But  this  offense  in  a  few  suffrage  states  like  Colorado 
has  undergone  a  complete  change.  It  is  a  crime  for  the  male 
person  to  have,  or  attempt  to  have,  such  relations  with  any 
female  of  whatever  age,  if  she  could  establish  the  claim  that 
she  did  not  understand  the  nature  of  the  act,  or  if  she  was  un- 
der eighteen  years  of  age,  no  matter  whether  she  consented 

*Only  recently  two  such  cases  have  been  filed  in  the  Juvenile  Court. 
It  is  needless  to  say  if  found  guilty  they  w;ll  get  the  severest  kind  of 
sentences. 

34 


to  it,  solicited  it,  by  her  conduct  invited  it,  or  with  any  motive 
of  blackmail  contributed  to  it.  It  1907  a  pretense  was 
made  to  add  a  second  and  third  degree  of  rape,  but  it  did  not, 
in  actual  experience  under  the  law,  change  the  condition  in  one 
case  out  of  a  hundred.  Upon  conviction  in  the  court,  by  the 
testimony  of  any  such  female,  in  nearly  every  case  the  male  at 
once  faces  a  penientiary  sentence  of  from  three  to  twenty  years. 

Penalties  in  Sex  and  Sin. 

V\"e,  of  course,  favored  the  purpose  of  the  law.  But  the 
change  in  the  attitude  of  society  towards  sex  and  sin  caused 
the  courts  to  face  an  amazing  condition  in  a  city  like  Denver; 
and  let  it  be  understood  that  under  a  similar  law  the  same  con- 
ditions we  describe  would  be  met  in  most  any  other  city.  Any 
sort  of  intelligent  comprehension  of  these  cases  then  discloses 
that  there  is  as  wride  a  range  of  difference  in  particular  cases, 
all  subject  to  the  same  penalty,  as  there  is  between  petty  lar- 
ceny and  murder,  between  petty  lying  and  assassination.  Our 
deputy  district  attorney  says  the  difference  is  even  greater. 
Now,  imagine  a  state  that  would  provide  the  same  law  and 
penalty  for  the  punishment  of  petty  stealing  or  petty  lying  that 
it  would  provide  for  assassination  or  murder.  As  pointed  out 
in  this  pamphlet,  it  was  the  great  work  of  the  Juvenile  Court 
of  Denver  to  relieve  it  of  these  absurdities  and  difficulties  and 
to  make  it  a  vital,  effective  piece  of  legislation.  This  was  to 
prevent  it  becoming  a  dead  letter  because  of  its  very  severity 
and  inelasticity. 

Great  Improvement  Under  New  System. 

Through  the  elastic  provisions  of  probation,  suspended  sen- 
tences, right  to  secure  confidences  and  confessions  we  secured 
more  convictions  than  before,  sent  more  men  to  prison  and 
avoided  publicity  and  the  train  of  degradations  that  follow  for 
those  unfortunate  girls,  as  well  as  many  other  woes  and  miseries 
attendant  upon  the  old  methods  of  administration. 

The  Assistant  Judge  and  Clerk  of  the  court,  Mrs.  Ida  L. 
Gregory,  a  mother  and  a  good  \voman,  has  sat  with  the  Judge 
in  these  cases  for  ten  years.  Now  let  us  just  describe  two  such 
cases  out  of  a  number  of  the  same  character. 

35 


Typical  Cases  in  Sex  and  Sin. 

Here  is  a  young  white  girl,  sixteen  years  of  age;  she  is 
strongly  suspected  of  going  wrong  with  young  men  in  the 
neighborhood;  the  girl  denies  it;  the  mother  bitterly  denounces 
it;  neither  the  woman  probation  officer  nor  the  polire  officers 
have  been  able  to  get  positive  evidence.  The  mother  of  that 
girl  is  finally  asked  if  Mrs.  Gregory  and  the  Judge  could  talk 
to  the  girl  alone.  The  mother  readily  consents.  Knowing 
these  cases  and  these  girls  as  we  do,  and  using  that  kind  of 
sympathy,  mixed  with  firm  condemnation  of  sin,  that  girl  has 
told  us  that  she  has  gone  wrong  with  several  young  men.  But 
she  would  not  tell  us  this  until  as  a  last  resort  we  are  com- 
pelled to  tell  her  that  she  may  tell  us  in  confidence.  This  is 
because*  we  have "  found  in  dealing  with  these  girls  and  this 
problem  it  is  better  to  know  the  truth  under  these  conditions 
than  not  to  know  it  at  all.  The  names  or  whereabouts  of  some 
of  these  young  men  she  doesn't  even  know.  They  are  gener- 
ally boys  from  fifteen  to  twenty  years  of  age;  she  confides  that 
she  knows  the  names  and  whereabouts  of  two  of  them;  but 
she  will  commit  suicide  or  do  some  other  horrible  act  if  her 
mother  knows  these  facts;  or  if  she  is  compelled  to  go  through 
the  grilling  publicity  of  a  public  trial;  she  is  certain  that  the 
men  will  deny  it. 

How  Some  Cases  Must  Be  Handled. 

Then,  as  a  last  resort,  rather  than  to  lose  all  hold 
over  these  young  men,  \ve  promise  her  that  there  isn't 
one  chance  in  ten  of  there  being  a  public  trial,  for  there  is  a 
probation  law  under  which  we  hope  to  get  these  young  men  to 
plead  guilty  to  the  charge  and  be  sentenced  to  a  short  term  in 
jail  and  to  probation  for  two  years,  and  if  in  that  time  they  are 
guilty  of  any  improper  conduct  with  any  other  girl  we  can 
then,  on  the  strength  of  the  control  we  have  thus  secured  over 
them  (that  we  couldn't  likely  get  in  any  other  way)  send  them 
to  jail  or  states  prison  without  involving  her  at  all.  This  can 
all  be  done  without  adding  to  her  degradation,  mortification  or 
disgrace;  without  visiting  upon  her  the  awful  sufferings  that 
come  to  some  of  these  unfortunate  girls.  Now,  how  is  this 

36 


send  the  police  officer,  Mr.  Phillips,  who  was  ap- 
pointed and  detailed  by  the  mayor  and  fire  and  police  board  to 
do  this  work,  to  arrest  the  man  (who  is  generally  a  youth). 
Of  course  lie  has  the  right  under  the  law  to  give  a  bond  to  be 
released  for  trial,  but  generally  he  spends  several  days  in  jail 
and  gets  a  terrific  shock  and  powerful  lesson  whether  he  is 
eventually  tried  and  acquitted  by  the  jury  or  found  guilty  and 
n  probation.  In  most  cases  he  comes  indignantly  to  court 
with  his  lawyer  to  deny  the  whole  thing. 

Extraordinary  Protection  for  Girls. 

This  court  is  a  chancery  court  to  protect  the  girls  and  claim- 
ing extraordinary  rights  under  this  power  we  have  gone  further 
than  courts  generally  go  or  have  any  right  to  go  in  such  cases. 
\Ye  know  that  we  cannot  afford  to  violate  the  con^dence  of  the 
girl  by  dragging  that  case  through  a  public  trial  that  may  only 
on  the  word  of  one  against  the  other,  and  the  reasonable  doubt 
theory,  the  case  will  be  dismissed  or  a  jury  will  either  refuse 
to  agree  or  will  find  a  verdict  of  not  guilty.  So  the  deputy 
district  attorney,  who  has  co-operated  in  these  cases,  or  the 
probation  officer  with  his  consent,  suggests  that  if  a  plea  of 
guilty  is  entered,  suspended  sentence  ojr  probation  may  be  ap- 
plied, with  perhaps  a  short  jail  term.  Whereas  there  is  at 
least  some  chance  of  a  jury  conviction  if  there  is  a  trial,  in 
which  case  the  court  is  almost  certain  to  send  the  accused  to 
states  prison.  A  confession  generally  follows. 

Something  Done  as  Against  Nothing  Done. 

The  only  compunction  of  conscience  we  have  ever  had  about 
this  sort  of  work  to  protect  these  girls,  by  doing  something,  where 
heretofore  nothing  was  done,  has  been  the  fact  that  we  have  gone 
far  beyond  the  ordinary  province  or  duty  of  the  judge,  district  at- 
torney or  officers  and  become  partisans  and  representatives 
of  the  female.  The  result  is  that  in  nearly  every  such  case 
when  we  get  a  confession  a  jail  sentence  and  probation  is  ap- 
plied. And  recently  the  juries  are  discovering  that  probation 
may  be  applied  in  proper  cases  and  they  are  becoming  more  will- 
ing to  convict  in  doubtful  cases.  Many  of  these  young  men  have 
reported  to  the  Judge  personally.  They  have  received  the 

37 


severest  kind  of  condemnation  for  their  sin,  and  the  strongest 
kind  of  appeals  to  lead  a  moral  and  decent  life. 

Great  Good  Accomplished. 

And  the  stories  of  some  of  these  young  men  and  what  they 
have  done  to  protect  other  girls  and  comply  with  the  desires  of 
the  court  and  their  parents  furnish  one  of  the  most  glorious  chap- 
ters in  the  history  of  the  constructive  and  administrative  work  of 
this  court.  Of  course  we  are  handicapped — we  have  no  paid  pro- 
bation officers  for  adult  cases ;  and  let  it  be  understood  that  under 
the  law  these  cases  are  listed  and  are  necessarily  known  as  adult 
cases.  The  only  paid  probation  officers  we  have  are  for  chil- 
dren's c'ases,  and  since  we  haven't  half  enough  officers  in  Denver 
for  that  work,  we  have  volunteered  extra  hours  and  devoted 
much  time  and  labor  that  is  not  demanded  of  us  by  law.  But  we 
do  so  gladly  just  because  of  our  interest  in  these  unfortunate 
girls. 

Other  Typical  Girl  Cases. 

Take  another  typical  case  from  our  notes.  This  girl,  17 
years  of  age,x  complains  against  a  young  man  of  20,  or,  to  be 
exact,  the  girl  did  not  complain,  but  having  been  discovered 
by  her  mother  to  be  in  a  delicate  condition,  the  mother  forces 
her  to  tell.  The  girl  tells  us  that  in '  her  distress  she  charged 
her  condition  to  a  certain  young  man  of  20.  He  has  been  ar- 
rested and  put  in  jail  under  a  $1,500  bond.  This  bond  he  must 
give  before  he  can  be  released  until  the  case  is  tried;  his  attor- 
ney has  asked  that  the  bond  be  reduced  to  $1,000 — a  sum  that 
he  can  give.  The  youth,  of  course,  denies  his  guilt  and  has 
demanded  a  jury  trial.  We  are  hearing  the  case  on  the  appli- 
cation to  reduce  that  bond.  It  is  explained  that  the  young 
man  is  a  college  boy ;  comes  from  an  excellent  family ;  has  a 
good  reputation;  was  never  in  trouble  before — all  of  which  is 
proved  and  admitted.  The  girl  at  this  preliminary  hearing  de- 
nies vigorously  that  she  ever  did  wrong  before. 

Confidences  of  Girls. 

By  the  consent  of  her  mother,  Mrs.  Gregory  and  the  Judge 
are  permitted  to  talk  to  her  in  private.  As  a  result,  we  secured 

38 


her  confidence  only  on  the  condition  that  her  parents  would 
not  be  informed  of  fhe  truth,  and  that  no  public  trial  will  be 
had  in  other  cases  that  m;ght  only  condemn  her  as  a  perjurer 
or  a  bad  girl.  She  frankly  confesses  that  she  has  gone  wrong 
with  a  number  of  young  men.  She  says  very  frankly  that  she 
did  it  willingly  in  every  case.  With  another  one  of  these  young 
men  she  has  had  improper  relations  upon  a  number  of  occas- 
ions. Xow  this  fact  is  no  defense  if  that  young  man  accused 
is  guilty.  The  girl  had  to  put  her  trouble  upon  some  one  and 
she  put  it  upon  the  one  that  under  the  circumstances  promises 
the  best  hope  of  conviction  and  responsibility  for  the  child  that 
might  come  into  the  world.  This  case  would  never  have  been 
disclosed  at  all  if  it  hadn't  been  that  as  a  result  of  these  promis- 
cuous relations  the  girl  was  about  to  become  a  mother — a  cir- 
cumstance that  became  apparent  to  her  own  mother. 

An  Administrative  Work. 

Xow  here  is  a  big  case  of  administrative  work;  we  want  to 
save  that  child  that  is  coming  into  the  world,  and  we  want  to  save 
the  unfortunate  mother  of  that  child;  and  we  want  to  do  justic'e 
to  all  those  concerned.  \Ye  have  no  means  of  getting  the  other 
young  men,  who  are  equally  responsible  in  the  sight  of  the  law, 
unless  this  girl  is  willing  to  disclose  their  names  and  stand  for 
their  prosecution.  But  she  has  told  her  mother  that  she  was 
a  good  girl  with  the  exception  of  this  one  "mistake/'  She  has 
sworn  to  that  at  a  preliminary  hearing.  If  the  court  wanted  to 
do  no  more  than  courts  are  in  the  habit  of  doing,  namely: 
merely  try  that  one  young  man  and  see  him  go  scot  free,  as  he 
would  in  most  such  cases,  it  would  be  a  very  easy  matter  for 
the  court  and  would  provoke  no  criticism  from  any  source. 

Court  Exceeds    Expectations — Does    More    than 
Expected  of  It. 

But  this  court  has  been  in  the  habit  of  giving  more  to  the 
people  than  was  to  be  expected — doing  more  than  it  was  required 
to  do.  This  has  become  a  crime  in  the  estimation  of  its  ene- 
mies. It  is  the  "crime"  for  which  it  must  be  recalled  and  de- 
stroyed; but  it  is  a  "crime"  in  which  it  takes  particular  pride, 

and  the  people  of  Denver  take  a  particular  pride,   because  of 

39 


the  great  good  that  has  been  done  and  can  be  done  in  these 
difficult  cases  of  sex  and  sin.  We  go  to  the  bottom  of  the 
matter.  We  find  a  way  to  face  all  the  difficulties  and  bring  all 
concerned  before  the  bar  of  justice;  to  teach  all  a  lesson  and 
save  the  girl  and  her  baby  in  most  cases.  But  it  is  an  admin- 
istrative work — a  delicate  and  difficult  one,  frequently  misun- 
derstood and  misrepresented,  and  with  many  people,  of  course, 
a  very  thankless  task. 

Avoiding  Publicity  to  Save  Girl. 

In  nineteen  cases  out  of  twenty  a  case  like  that  is 
handled  without  publicity  in  this  court;  whereas,  under  the 
old  criminal  court  system  it  was  forced  to  a  brutal  court 
proc'eedings  that  generally  meant  acquittal  for  the  man  and 
degradation  for  the  girl  (though  the  chances  are  under 
the  old  system  it  would  never  have  been  filed  or  tried  at  all  and 
absolutely  nothing  done).  Many  conferences  are  held  with  the 
mother  of  the  girl,  the  parents  of  the  young  man,  lectures,  talks, 
pleadings,  condemnations  and  appeals  are  made;  instead  of  the 
court  adjourning  at  twelve  o'clock,  as  other  courts  do,  the 
Judge  is  sitting  in  chambers  until  one  o'clock.  Instead  of  ad- 
journing at  four  or  five  o'clock,  as  other  courts  do,  the  Judge 
is  staying  in  chambers  until  six  and  seven  o'clock,  day  after 
day,  during  most  of  which  time  some  such  administrative  work 
is  going  on  and,  as  we  know,  wonderful  good  being  done; 
whereas,  before  in  most  such  cases  "nothing  was  done." 

Penalties  and  Probation. 

We  have  in  mind  two  young  men  sent  to  the  reformatory 
for  these  offenses.  We  know  that  both  of  them  went  back  to 
states  prison.  Isn't  it  strange  that  this  fact  has  not  convinced 
some  people  that  states  prison  isn't  the  only  remedy  for  the 
protection  of  girls.  We  also  have  in  mind  nineteen  out  of 
twenty  men — mostly  youths — who  have  been  brought  to  this 
court  by  the  methods  described,  when  they  couldn't  have  been 
brought  here  and  convicted  by  any  other  method,  and  all  of 
whom,  we  are  confident,  have  a  more  wholesome  respect  for 
womanhood  than  ever.  They  learned  a  severe  lesson.  They 
escaped  soiling  their  souls  with  the  degrading  crime  of  perjury, 

40 


and  they  did  not  leave  the  court,  as  many  of  them  have  left  it 
after  dismissal  in  the  criminal  courts  or  jury  trials,  feeling  that 
to  commit  such  a  sin  was  a  joke.  For,  as  shown  in  the  state- 
ment, in  twelve  years  in  the  criminal  court,  out  of  172  cases 
for  rape  and  assault  to  rape  only  38  were  ever  tried  to  a  jury  at 
all  and  more  than  half  of  those  tried  were  acquitted  by  the  jury. 

A  Woman  Sits  With  Judge. 

The  Judge  of  this  court  hasn't  sat  in  these  cases  for  ten  years 
past  without  the  presence  of  a  woman  as  assistant  judge  to  lis- 
ten, observe  and  advise.  This  was  a  condition,  we  understand, 
that  existed  in  no  other  court  in  this  country  untii  very  recently 
something  of  the  kind  was  done  in  the  city  of  Chicago.  Some 
very  interesting  experiences  and  other  facts  in  these  confer- 
ences have  been  freely  given  us  by  these  girls.  For  example, 
we  often  ask  the  girl  in  such  conference:  "How  many  other 
girls  do  you  know  in  the  city  who  are  making  the  same  mistake 
you  have  made?'' 

Psychology  of  the  Case. 

Xow,  understand,  here  is  what  we  call  the  "psychology  of 
the  case."  This  means  that  we  come  into  sympathetic  touch 
with  the  unfortunate  girl  and  she  tells  us  facts  she  wouldn't 
tell  her  .own  mother  in  most  cases.  She  is  put  at  ease  if  she 
knows  that  the  court  is  here  to  throw  its  sheltering  protection 
about  her  and  her  life  as  far  as  possible.  She  is  frank  and  free 
to  tell  the  truth  as  she  would  not  be  under  any  other  conditions, 
and  as  she  certainly  wouldn't  in  an  ordinary  court  proceeding. 
She  is  told  that  no  information  she  gives  us  will  be  disclosed 
or  used  that  will  involve  her  in  further  trouble  or  degradation 
unless  it  is  done  with  her  consent,  or  unless  we  secure  facts 
through  other  sources.  Xow,  in  most  cases,  we  invariably  get 
the  following  answers  to  the  questions  propounded: 

Answers  by  Girls. 

"Oh,  I  know  two  or  three  girls  that  have  made  the  same 
mistake  I  have;  I  am  sure  of  it;"  or  "Most  every  girl  I  know 
has  done  the  same  thing." 

This  answer  doesn't  mean  to  imply  that  every  girl  she 
knows  is  a  common  prostitute.  It  means  that  many  girls  she 

41 


knows  have  voluntarily  made  the  occasional  "mistake."  Some- 
times we  ask  again,  "Do  you  mind  telling  us  the  names  of  these 
girls?"  Generally  they  refuse  to  tell.  Their  excuse  is  that  it 
would  be  tattling,  and  they  don't  want  to  get  the  girls  in  trou- 
ble. We  do  not  insist  upon  their  telling.  But  we  have  often 
in  proper  cases  induced  them  to  bring  their  chums  to  Mrs. 
Gregory  and  disclosures  have  been  made  that  have  resulted  in 
much  good  work,  with  boys  and  young  men,  the  only  hope  of 
which  is  through  the  avoidance  of  publicity. 

The  Endless  Chain. 

Several  years  ago,  just  as  a  matter  of  curiosity,  we  started 
in  to  get  some  idea  of  the  number  of  such  cases  there  might 
be  in  a  city  the  size  of  Denver,  since  we  know  the  same  con- 
ditions in  Denver  existed  in  nearly  every  city  in  so  far  as  the 
sex  problem  is  concerned.  A  girl  would  tell  us  that  she  knew 
five  girls  that  had  made  the  same  mistake.  She  would  induce 
some  of  these  to  come  to  court,  just  as  we  get  the  boys  to  come 
to  court  voluntarily,  or  our  officer  would  visit  them.  In  nearly 
every  case  such  disclosures  were  confirmed.  Similar  questions 
to  the  girls  thus  reporting,  as  to  how  many  they  knew,  led  to 
other  disclosures,  and  on  to  others,  until  we  found  ourselves 
following  an  endless  chain. 

Conditions  Improved  by  Girls. 

Some  of  these  girls  told  us  the  number  of  boys  or 
men.  Over  half  of  them  wouldn't  tell  their  names  except 
on  the  express  condition  that  they  were  not  to  be  dis- 
closed or  prosecuted.  They  believed  that  meant  their  public 
exposure  or  disgrac'e.  It  meant  their  conviction  of  the 
crime  they  seemed  to  fear  most — "being  found  out."  Society 
generally  furnished  the  penalty.  Penalties  of  courts  were  not 
necessary,  at  least  so  far  as  the  girl  was  concerned.  After  a 
conference  many  of  our  officers  were  of  the  opinion  that 
through  the  amazing  results  of  administrative  work,  that  was 
never  undertaken  before,  it  was  perfectly  possible  to  bring  to 
court  a  thousand  such  cases.  We  could  fill  the  penitentiary  to 
overflowing  if  there  was  any  hope  of  prosecutions  or  convic- 
tions. We  could  do  much  more  good  and  bring  to  light  more 

42 


such  cases  if  we  had  the  adult  probation  officers  and  equipment 
to  handle  them. 

Thousands  of  Sex  Cases. 

I  took  up  this  experience  with  officers  and  judges  in  other 
courts  in  other  cities.  In  every  case  they  assured  me  that  their 
own  experience,  if  they  should  undertake  so  close  an  inquiry, 
would  be  precisely  the  same.  In  New  York  city  an  officer  told 
us  that  if  such  a  law  existed  there  and  such  a  work  was  done  « 
he  was  confident  they  could  resurrect  fifty  thousand  cases — 
this  assuming,  of  course,  they  were  able  to  secure  the  same 
sort  of  confidences  and  facts  and  had  the  time  to  give  to  the 
work,  which  was  a  physical  impossibility. 

Great  Problem  of  Sex  and  Sin. 

These  things  are  mentioned  for  the  benefit  of  honest  people 
who  know  nothing  of  these  cases,  who  haven't  the  slightest  con- 
ception of  the  great  problem  of  sex  and  sin,  especially  in  the 
cities  of  this  country.  And  for  the  benefit  of  those  vindictive 
busybodies  who  know  something  of  the  facts,  but  who,  assum- 
ing that  others  do  not,  are  deliberately  taking  advantage  of  a 
court  and  a  work  that  has  dared  to  boldly  face  the  problem  and 
try  to  do  something.  They  would  make  it  appear  to  the  world 
that  that  something  that  has  all  been  for  the  better  protection 
of  girls,  should  provoke  the  public  condemnation  instead  of 
its  approbation. 

Persistent  Busybodies. 

These  busybodies  have  done  nothing  for  girls  or  the  pro- 
tection of  women.  They  have  sought  to  complicate  the  difficul- 
ties. They  have  nagged  and  carped  and  barked  at  those  who 
have  tried  to  do  something.  By  misrepresenting  that  something 
done,  they  have  sought  to  gain  a  cheap  notoriety  that  only  de- 
serves the  contempt  that  is  being  visited  upon  them  by  all  right- 
minded  people  who  understand  their  animus  and  vindictive  spirit 
of  revenge. 

Education  and  Religion  Needed. 

It  is .  also  disclosed  as  showing  the  need  for  education  and 
religion,  and  something  else  besides  visiting  upon  a  few  the 

43 


mere  vengeance  of  society  for  its  own  sins.     It  is  also  disclosed 
as  showing  the  hypocrisy  of  the  Pharisees. 

Unmorality  of  Some  Girls. 

Another  important  disclosure  that 'faced  us  was  the  sheer 
unmorality  of  some  of  these  girls.  Some  women  officers  call 
it  sheer  wantonness.  The  Judge  could  have  hardly  believed  it 
until  he  faced  it  in  case  after  case.  We  have  seen  or  heard  at 
these  hearings,  in  exceptional  instances,  of  course,  girls  as 
young  as  fourteen  to  sixteen,  matured  far  beyond  their  age, 
boast  of  their  clandestine  relations  with  boys  and  young  men, 
and  tell  with  the  mock  pride  of  a  bad  boy  who  relates  his  es- 
capades to  his  chums,  of  how  they  deliberately  set  traps  for 
boys  or  young  men.  I  have  had  such  a  girl  in  the  most  un- 
moral way  boast  of  her  clandestine  relations  with  twenty-five 
young  men  in  the  course  of  a  few  weeks.  She  didn't  even 
know  or  care  to  know  their  names  or  identity.  Yet  that  girl 
seemed  in  other  respects  to  have  many  good  traits,  and  today 
is  married  to  a  first-class  young  fellow,  who  was  fully  ac- 
quainted with  her  unmorality  and  these  sex  relations.  They  are 
and  have  been  for  some  time  living  apparently  in  the  happiest 
of  circumstances. 

Girls  Difficult  to  Protect. 

Another  type  of  girl  repeatedly  warned  against  appearing 
on  the  streets,  or  attracting  or  inviting  the  attention  of  men, 
have  been  found  afterwards  deliberately  enticing  boys  and  men 
into  the  relations  that  followed  between  them,  and  freely  and 
frankly  admitting  it  before  us,  and  in  some  cases  regarding  it 
as  an  accomplishment. 

Yet  under  this  new  definition  of  "rape,"  before  the  Juven- 
ile Court's  administrative  work  came  to  relieve  the  situation 
of  the  difficulty  there  was  no  alternative  in  some  such  cases,  but 
states  prison,  and  nothing  to  prevent  the  rankest  kind  of  black- 
mail by  such  females  except  the  well-known  fact  that  most  of 
these  cases  would  be  dismissed  by  district  attorneys  or  juries. 
And,  of  course,  that  meant  tliat  the  law  absolutely  failed  in 
accomplishing  anything  but  injustice,  more  crimes  and  a  con- 
tempt for  law. 

44 


Probation  in  Colorado. 

Many  of  the  eastern  and  supposedly  reactionary  states 
have  up  to  date  enlightened  probation  laws  for  adults  as  ap- 
plying to  nearly  all  felonies.  Because  of  the  amazing  change 
that  has  been  made  in  the  old  offense  that  was  known  as  "rape" 
there  are  no  class  of  offenses  that  call  more  loudly  in  certain 
cases  for  the  application  of  probation.  It  is  the  most  certain 
method  to  secure  convictions  and  eventual  imprisonment  of 
those  that  ought  to  be  imprisoned. 

But  in  Colorado  we  have  probation  laws  for  felonies,  in- 
cluding that  of  rape  only  in  cases  where  the  accused  is  under 
2i  years  of  age  in  the  County  and  Juvenile  Courts.  There  is 
also  probation  for  adults  in  a  special  class  of  felonies  and  all 
misdemeanors.  Of  course,  under  the  common  lawr,  as  in  the 
federal  courts  and  other  courts,  the  court  has  a  perfect  right 
to  suspend  the  sentence  and  continue  the  case  from  time  to 
time — a  right  that  even  the  legislature  cannot  take  away  from 
them  without  amending  the  constitution.  The  District  Court 
and  other  courts  in  this  state  have  often  resorted  to  this  power ; 
it  has  been  resorted  to  in  the  Juvenile  Court.  The  great  diffi- 
culty is  that  the  court  loses  jurisdiction  of  the  case  after  the 
term,  and  the  Governor  vetoed  the  law  passed  by  the  legislature 
supplying  the  paid  probation  officers  for  adult  cases. 

How  "Woman's   Protective   League"  Fought   Women   and 

and  Children. 

After  years  of  fighting  to  get  relief  from  these  handicaps, 
that  girls  and  women  might  be  better  protected,  the  Boss 
Evans-Curtis-Whitehead-Bates  influences  prevailed  upon  the 
governor  to  veto  this  law  when  it  was  finally  secured  from  the 
legislature.  This  was  the  worst  blow  ever  dealt  in  Colorado 
to  enlightened  and  progressive  criminal  jurisprudence.  It  put 
the  state  far  behind  eastern  states  having  such  a  law,  and  west- 
ern progressive  suffrage  states  like  California.  It  is  a  disgrace- 
ful condition  of  affairs  that  will  undoubtedly  be  corrected  by  the 
people  themselves. 


45 


Force,  Vengeance  and  Punishment,  as  Mixed  With  Firm- 
ness and  Mercy. 

The  first  consideration  of  the  Juvenile  Court  in  handling 
these  'cases  is  the  protection  of  society  against  the  sins  of  the 
iveak.  But  it  is  a  big  question  to  know  how  this  can  best  be 
done.  It  has  been  shown  that  jails  and  prisons  are  not  cure- 
alls.  Yet  we  pay  three  million  dollars  per  annum  to  detect  and 
punish  men  and  not  one  cent  for  adult  probation.  It  seemed 
to  us  that  a  middle  ground  at  this  stage  of  the  development  of 
society  was  perhaps  the  best  method  to  bring  about  this  result. 
It  has  proved  so  from  an  experience  of  thirteen  years.  In  that 
thirteen  years  we  have  never  had  jurisdiction  of  all  of  these 
cases.  In  our  administrative  work  there  has  been,  as  it  were, 
a  mixture  of  these  remedies. 

Over  95%  Punished  in  Jails  and  Prisons. 

For,  from  the  standpoint  of  punishment,  in  nearly  every  case 
where  a  verdict  of  guilty  was  secured,  and  where  the  court  had 
any  right  under  the  law  to  deal  out  any  sort  of  punishment  in  any 
one  of  these  cases,  some  kind  of  punishment  was  imposed — from 
jail  to  penitentiary  sentences  that  were  actually  served  in  more 
than  95  per  cent  of  such  c'ases.  But  in  some  cases  the  restraining 
influence  of  probation  was  also  applied.  It  had  to  be  applied  in 
many  cases  lest,  as  under  the  old  system  of  violence  alone,  abso- 
lutely nothing  would  have  been  done.  For  nothing  was  done  in 
more  than  two-thirds  of  the  cases  thus  acted  upon  under  the  old 
system.  Let  it  also  be  understood  that  the  great  majority  of 
these  cases  in  the  Juvenile  Court  were  disclosed  through  the 
special  work  of  the  Juvenile  Court  officers  and  involved  boys 
and  girls  under  twenty-one  years  of  age. 

Great  Increase  in  Efficiency  Over  Criminal  Eourt  Cases. 

While  not  over  13  per  cent  of  the  rape  cases  filed  in  the 
Criminal  Court  in  twelve  years  were  tried,  convicted  and  pun- 
ished, more  than  60  per  cent  of  all  the  rape  cases  filed  in  the 
Juvenile  Court  in  nearly  four  years,  in  which  a  conviction  was 
possible,  were  actually  convicted. 

More  than  95  per  cent  of  those  convicted  in  the  Juvenile 
Court  received  a  wholesome  lesson  in  respect  for  girlhood  by 

46 


actually  serving  sentences  in  the  county  jail,  the  states  prison 
at  Buena  Vista,  or  the  state  penitentiary.     There  were  less  than 
.ie  172  similar  cases  filed  in  the  Criminal  Court 
that  were  ever  punished  at  all. 

To  Redeem  Individual  in  Proper  Cases. 

In  the  Juvenile  Court  in  the  cases  where  punishment  was 
mingled  with  the  mercy  of  probation,  there  was  also  something 
done  to  redeem  the  individual  and  shield  the  girls,  while  in  the 
Criminal  Court  there  was  nothing  done  except  to  deal  out  the 
vengeance  of  the  state,  and  always  expose  the  girl. 

Not  Criticising  Officers  Criminal  Court. 

In  saying  this  we  are  not  criticizing  the  Criminal  Court  or 
udges.  Those  Judges  were  good  men;  they  simply  did 
what  the  law  required  them  to  do.  There  was  no  obligation 
upon  them  to  do  the  voluntary  administrative  work  or  fight  for 
sane  and  sensible  laws  as  has  been  done  in  the  Juvenile  Court. 
There  was  very  little  encouragement  for  them  to  do  it  if  they 
heeded  the  knocks,  criticisms,  abuse  and  misrepresentations 
that  come  to  those  who  tried  to  do  something  more  than  the 
state  required  them  to  do.  The  Juvenile  Court  is  under  great 
obligations  to  the  present  Judges,  Hon.  C  C.  Butler,  Hon.  Tas. 
H.  Teller  and  the  other  Judges  of  the  District  Court,  for  their 
sympathy  and  help  to  secure  the  adult  probation  law  and  officers 
urged  and  described  in  this  pamphlet.  These  Judges  came  into 
office  in  January,  1913.  They  will  undoubtedly  assist  and  sym- 
pathize with  the  Juvenile  Court  in  its  constructive  work  in  these 
cases. 

Co-operation  of  Hon.  John  A.  Rush,  District  Attorney. 

Mr.  Rush  has  only  been  district  attorney  since  January  14, 
1913.  Only  two  or  three  sex  cases  have  been  filed  by  him  in 
the  Criminal  Court  and  sentences  were  imposed  in  each.  He  has 
now  arranged  for  a  system  of  co-operative  work  and  the  filing 
of  all  such  cases  in  the  Juvenile  Court. 

Offenders  Against  Girls — The  Law  on  the  Subject. 

In  the  Criminal  Courts  most  of  these  offenders  were  men. 
In  the  Juvenile  Court  most  of  them  are  boys  and  young  men, 

47 


and  in  nearly  every  case  they  are  first  offenders.  The  courts  of 
Colorado  have  no  right  under  the  law  to  sentence  a  person  under 
twenty-one  years  of  age  to  the  penitentiary  if  he  is  a  first  of- 
fender, unless  the  offense  is  a  capital  one  or  he  is  sentenced  to  im- 
prisonment for  life.  The  sentences  then  in  the  Juvenile  Court 
in  most  cases  are  necessarily  to  the  state  reformatory. 

Under  the  law  they  are  what  are  known  as  "indeterminate ;" 
that  is,  the  court  cannot  fix  the  time.  The  present  board,  con- 
sisting of  two  men  and  one  of  our  most  prominent  and  worthy 
women,  may  keep  the  offender  a  few  months  or  a  few  years. 
They  inform  us  that  the  short  incarcerations  are  due  to  a  num- 
ber of  causes  over  which  they  have  no  control — one,  for  ex- 
ample, being  the  crowded  Condition  of  the  institution,  and  the 
failure  of  the  legislature  to  furnish  the  necessary  relief. 

The  "Leagues"  Falsehoods  Exposed. 

But  these  Whitehead-Bates  circulars,  with  the  usual 
contemptible  misstatement  of  the  facts,  have  sought  to  arouse 
popular  prejudice  against  the  Judge  of  the  Juvenile  Court,  be- 
cause of  the  fact  that  he  hasn't  sent  these  boys  and  young  men 
and  all  the  men  brought  to  court  to  the  penitentiary — as  if  he 
had  any  right  to  do  it  in  the  first  place,  or  if  it  was  always  the 
proper  thing  to  do  in  every  c'ase.  They  proclaim  loudly  that  he 
has  only  sent  them  to  the  state  reformatory — a  state  prison— 
from  two  to  six  months.  Yet,  they  know  when  they  make  these 
false  statements  that  the  court  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  time 
of  their  incarceration.  That  must  be  fixed  by  the  Board  of 
Prison  Managers  under  our  penal  system.  Jail  sentences  mean 
practically  solitary  confinement  and  as  a  matter  of  fact  are  more 
dreaded  than  reformatory  sentences,  where  the  prisoners  have 
much  more  liberty.  Chiefs  of  Police  Armstrong  and  O'Neal 
have  repeatedly  rec'ommended  jail  sentences  as  preferable  to  re- 
formatory sentences  in  many  of  these  cases. 

TABLE  "A". 

TOTAL    CASES    INVOLVING    STATUTORY    RAPE    TABLE    IN    WEST 

SIDE  CRIMINAL  COURT  OF   DENVER    FOR   TWELVE   YEARS 

AND  FOUR  MONTHS,  ENDING  MAY  1ST,  1913. 

(Most  of  these  cases  are  against  men.  In  the  Juvenile  Court  most 
of  them  are  against  boys  under  21  years  of  age.  The  Criminal  Court 
may  send  the  men  to  the  penitentiary;  the  Juvenile  Court  has  no  right 
to  send  boys  under  21  to  the  penitentiary  for  any  felony,  first  offense.) 

48 


Total  cases  involving  the  charge  of  rape 172 

(As   in  the  Juvenile   Court  tables,   there   is 
also  included  in  this  list  assault  to  rape, 
seduction  and  incestuous  rape) 
Disposed  of  as  follows: 

b.  Xclle    prossed    (dismissed)     by    the    dis- 
trict   attorney    110 

Plea  of  assault  accepted   

olle  contendre  by  the  district  attorney.  12 

Tried  to  a  jury   38 

With  the  following  disposition: 

Found  not  guilty  by  jury  or  disagreed  and 

dismissed     22 

Plead  guilty    10 

Found  guilty  by  jury   16 

After  found  guilty  by  jury,  released  on 
$700  bond  and  skipped  state  (Case  No. 

18,398,    Joe    B.) 1 

Found  guilty  and  dismissed  by  court  on 
motion  of  district  attorney,  or  no  pen- 
alty imposed  (Oscar  G..  case  No.  17,226; 

Dennis    A.,    case    Xo.    19,122) 2 

(Note — These  two  cases  are  not  given  with  the 
the    intention    of    having    the    reader    infer 
that   the   action   by  the   court  and   the   dis- 
trict  attorney    was    not    entirely    proper.    It  f 
was     undoubtedly     justified    by    some     new 
facts  or  newly  discovered  evidence.) 
State   reformatory   and   sentence   suspended  1 

Total 150 

Cases  in  over  12  years  out  of  172  in  which 
convictions  were  had  and  in  which  pen- 
alties were  imposed  and  served  (as  fol- 
lows) :  22 

Sentenced  to  County  jail  for  60  days 1 

Sentenced  to  State  Reformatory,  indetermi- 
nate    8 

Indeterminate    sentences    between    1    and    6 

years    in    the   penitentiary    6 

Indeterminate   sentences   between   5  and   10 

years  in  the  penitentiary    4 

Indeterminate  sentences  between  10  and  20 
years  in  the  penitentiary  3 

Total 22  22 

Per  cent  of  convictions  in  cases  filed  in  12  years.  12.8% 

As  shown,  in  Table  B,  out  of  110  similar  cases  tried  in  the  Juvenile 
Court  in  only  four  years  and  four  months  there  were  49  convictions,  and  in 
nearly  every  case  the  defendant  actually  served  time  in  jail,  the  state 

*This  comparison  Is  not  intended  to  reflect  upon  the  Criminal  Court  officers. 
Certainly  not  upon  the  excellent  men  who  are  judges  of  that  court  and  who 
came  into  office  in  January,  1913.  It  is  merely  to  show  the  difficulties  of  these 
cases,  the  necessity  for  the  constructive  work  being  done  by  the  Juvenile  Court 
and  the  hypocrisy  of  the  Woman's  Protective  League,  who  have  never  been 
alarmed  at  the  record  of  the  Criminal  Court  under  former  prosecuting  district 
attorneys  and  former  judges. 

These  records  cover  a  great  many  years,  and  have  required  considerable 
time  in  getting  up  the  cases  with  as  much  accuracy  as  possible.  The  tables 
may  van."  in  a  matter  of  one  to  three  cases  here  and  there,  but  they  are  sub- 
stantially correct.  / 


reformatory  or  the  penitentiary.  A  total  of  44.6%  of  convictions  in  the 
Juvenile  Court  in  four  years  as  against  less  than  13%  in  the  Criminal 
Court  in  twelve  years. 

A  Few  Facts  for  the  Woman's  Protective  League. 

In  going  over  the  records  of  the  Criminal  Court,  there  are 
found  many  light  sentences  in  rape  cases.  No  doubt  there  were 
proper  reasons  for  these  sentences,  and  the  comment  is  not  made 
to  criticise  the  Criminal  Court,  but  to  show,  again,  the  hypocrisy 
of  The  Woman's  Protective  League.  We  submit  a  few  samples 
that  never  provoked  any  hysterical  or  false  circulars : 


Docket  No.  in 
West  Side 
Criminal  Court 

Name  

0 

cr 

CD 

5  5"  2 

III 

3    w   K 

oSf 

Q   P,  P 

C    CD 
|-j 
r*- 

14279 

L.  A., 

Rape 

Pleads  guilty  assault;   10  days  in 

county  jail. 

14323 

George    D. 

Assault  to  rape 

Pleads    guilty     to     assault;     jail 

sentence. 

13367 

Charles  F. 

Assault  to  rape 

Trial  to   court,   found   not   guilty. 

13268 

George    B. 

Assault  to  rape 

Pleads  guilty  to  assault;    $5  fine. 

13180 

G.  A.   D. 

Assault  to  rape 

Pleads  guilty;   60  days  in  county 

jail. 

12703 

William    M. 

Assault  to  rape 

Found  guilty  by  jury;   discharged 

by  court  on  motion  of  district 

attorney. 

12651 

Richard   H. 

Assault  to  rape 

Pleads  guilty  assault;   30  days  in 

county  jail. 

11322 

J.  A.  S. 

Assault  to  rape 

Pleads  guilty  to  assault;  10  days 

in  county  jail. 

11276 

J.    D. 

Rape 

Trial  to  court;   found   not  guilty. 

11061 

A.   G.  R. 

Assault  to  rape 

Pleads  guilty  to  assault;  1  day  in 

county  jail. 

11025 

E.   T. 

Assault  to  rape 

Pleads  guilty  to  assault;   10  days 

in  county  jail. 

1011 

E.   K. 

Rape 

Found  guilty;   suspended  on  con- 

dition  marry   complaining  wit- 

ness. 

8767 

I.   N.   T. 

Assault  to  rape 

Jury    found     guilty;      sentence    1 

day  in  county  jail  and  released. 

19122 

D.   A. 

Rape 

Discharged     after     being     found 

guilty. 

17226 

0.    G. 

Rape 

Found    guilty;    no    penalty. 

50 


Mrs.  Capron's  Statement. 

Verne  L.  Capron,  being  sworn  on  oath,  says : 
That  she  was  a  deputy  clerk  in  the  County  Court  of  Den- 
ver for  about  three  years,  and  has  been  the  deputy  clerk  in,  the 
Juvenile  Court  of  Denver  for  six  years;  that  she  is  familiar 
with  court  records;  that  she  has  kept  the  court  records  of  cases 
of  statutory  rape,  assault  to  rape  and  indecent  liberties  in  the 
Juvenile  Court,  and  that  the  tables  "B'"  and  "D"  in  this  pam- 
phlet, containing  an  account  of  said  cases  and  their  disposition 
is  true  and  correct  according  to  the  records  personally  kept  by 
her. 

*She  further  certifies  that  of  26  probationers  under  sus- 
pended sentence  to  the  State  Reformatory,  and  one  under  sus- 
pended sentence  to  c'ounty  jail,  all  but  one  had  served  time  in 
the  county  jail  from  arrest  to  time  of  trial  as  follows : 

Released  on  bond  at  time  of  arrest 1 

In  jail  from  5  to  10  days   8 

In  jail  from  20  to  30   days    11 

In  jail   42   days    1 

In  jail  43  days    1 

In  jail  44  days   1 

In  jail  53   days    1 

In  jail   68  days    1 

In  jail  1  to  5  days  2 

Total     27 

VERNE  L.  CAPROX. 

Subscribed  and  sworn  to  before  me  this  seventh  day  of 
October,  1913. 

IDA  L.  GREGORY, 
Clerk  Juvenile  Court,  a  Court  of  Record. 

J.  S.  Phillips,  being  duly  sworn  on  oath,  says: 

That  he  is  a  special  officer  appointed  by  the  Fire  and  Police 
Board  and  detailed  to  special  work  in  cases  of  crime  against 
•:hildren;  that  he  is  personally  familiar  with  most  of  the  stat- 
utory or  sex  cases  that  have  been  filed  in  the  Juvenile  Court,  and 

*In  ordinary  cases  of  probation  in  most  courts  in  such  cases  no 
jail  sentence  whatever  is  served.  Under  the  old  system  nearly  all  such 
cases  were  nolled  or  dismissed  and  nothing  done.  Under  similar  work 
in  Los  Angeles  in  the  last  two  years  148  were  put  on  probation,  as 
against  27  in  four  years,  in  Denver.  The  probationers  are  mostly  first 
offenders  among  young  men  and  boys. 

51 


many  of  those  filed  in  the  West  Side  Criminal  Court;  that  dur- 
ing the  month  of  August,  1913,  with  the  assistance  of  George 
McLachlan,  Clerk  of  the  West  Side  Criminal  Court,  he  went 
over  the  records  of  all  of  the  cases  involving  the  charge  of  rape 
and  indecent  liberties  that  were  filed  and  disposed  of  in  said 
Criminal  Court  from  January  i,  1901,  to  May  i,  1913;  that  in 
September,  1913,  he  again  went  over  all  of  said  cases  in  company 
with  Hon.  Ben  B.  Lindsey,  Judge  of  the  Juvenile  Court  of 
Denver ;  that  Mr.  McLachlan,  Clerk  of  the  Criminal  Court, 
and  the  said  Hon.  Ben  B.  Lindsey,  in  his  presence,  per- 
sonally inspected  and  checked  up  all  of  said  cases  in  the 
West  Side  Criminal  Court,  tabulated  and  set  forth  in 
Tables  "A"  and  "C"  in  this  pamphlet.  Because  of  some  uncer- 
tainties in  the  records  there  may  be  a  variation  of  two  or  three 
cases  in  the  entire  number,  but  otherwise  the  said  tables  as  set 
forth  are  true  and  accurate  according  to  the  official  rec'ords  from 
which  they  are  taken.  It  is  customary  to  credit  probationers 
with  time  served  in  jail  without  it  appearing  in  court  records 
against  them.  So  that  practically  all  of  the  probationers  have 
served  some  time  in  jail. 

This  list  does  not  include  three  or  four  cases  committed 
after  January  ist,  1901,  in  cases  filed  before  that  time. 
J.  S.  PHILLIPS, 

Special  Police  Officer  and  Investigator  in 
the  Juvenile  Court  in  Statutory  Cases. 

Subscribed  and  sworn  to  before  me  this  8th  day  of  Octo- 
ber, A.  D.  1913. 

GEORGE    MCLACHLAN^ 

Deputy  Clerk  District  Court,  and  Clerk  Criminal  Division 
District  Court,  known  as  West  Side  Criminal  Court. 

I  hereby  certify  that  I  checked  up  with  Mr.  George  Mc- 
Lachlan, Clerk  of  the  West  Side  Criminal  Court,  the  sex  cases 
filed  and  disposed  of  in  that  court  between  the  ist  of  January, 
1901,  and  the  ist  of  May,  1913.  These  cases  consist  of  172, 
involving  the  charge  of  rape,  and  21  involving  the  charge  of 
indec'ent  liberties.  I  personally  inspected  the  records  in  each 
one  of  these  cases  and  the  disposition  thereof.  Because  of  un- 

52 


certainties  in  the  record  as  to  possibly  two  or  three  cases — but 
not  to  exceed  that  number — there  may  be  a  variance  of  two  or 
three  cases  as  to  disposition.  But  as  to  the  balance  of  nearly 
200  cases  thus  personally  inspected,  the  tables  "A"  and  "C"  are 
true  and  correct. 

BEN  B.  LINDSEY. 

TABLE  "B". 

CASES  INVOLVING  CHARGE  OF  RAPE,  FILED  IN  THE  JUVENILE 

COURT  OF  DENVER,  FOR  FOUR  YEARS  AND  FOUR 

MONTHS,  ENDING  MAY  1ST,  1913. 

(Most  of  these  case  involve  boys  and  young  men  under  21  years 
of  age,  and  girls  between  sixteen  and  eighteen.  The  Juvenile  Court 
has  no  right  to  send  a  youth  under  21  to  the  penitentiary,  if  it  is  his 
first  offense — the  only  sentence  allowed  under  the  circumstances  is 
jail  or  reformatory.) 

a.  Total  number  of  cases  actually  filed 126 

Charge    of     rape     withdrawn    by    district    attorney     and 

charge  of  assault  and  battery  substituted    6 

Not    tried    and    still    pending    on    docket    May    1,    1913     10 
Total    number    of    rape    cases    tried    in    Juvenile    Court 

in    four    years    and    four    months     110 

Results    of    trials    of   said    cases: 

Fugitives    from    justice    at    time    case    filed 3 

Fugitives    after    arrest    and    bond    forfeited    g. . . .       3 

Found    not    guilty    by    jury    ,  12 

Found    not    guilty    by    court    "^  1 

Dismissed  by  prosecuting  officer  by  agreement  be- 
tween parties  interested,  for  such  causes  as  lack 
of  evidence  to  convict,  on  payment  of  support  for 
prosecuting  witness,  or  where  prosecuting  witness 
and  defendant  got  married  6 

b.  "Nolle  prossed"  by  the  district  attorney 31 

c.  "Nolle  contendre,"  by  district  attorney 3 

Transferred    to    adjoining    county    where     offense    was 

committed,    Juvenile    Court    having    no    jurisdiction       2 


Total  out  of  110  cases  in  which  the  Juvenile  Judge  had  no 

right  to  impose  any  punishment  ....................  61 

Remaining  cases  in  which  the  Juvenile  Judge  had  a  right 

to  impose  sentence  and  penalty  ............  ........  49 

110 
With   the   following   results: 

Convicted    by    a    jury    ................................       8 

Convictions  secured  by  court  officers  mostly  through 
the  kind  of  work  described  in  securing  confes- 
sions, rather  than  submitting  to  old-time  dismis- 
sals by  district  attorney  and  juries  ..............  41 


a.  These  tables  do  not  necessarily  mean  that  there  were  the  same  number  of 
actual  defendants  at  law.  There  are  sometimes  duplication  of  charges.  An 
allowance  of  ten  to  twelve  per  cent  should  be  allowed  for  this.  Take  the  case 
of  George  N.,  who  is  one  of  Whitehead's  Humane  officers.  He  was  prosecuted 
in  the  Juvenile  Court  for  frightful  indecencies  against  little  girls,  and  in  the- 

53 


Dealt  with  as   follows: 

Served  time  in  the  county  jail  (in  the  great  majority 
of  cases  from  thirty  to  sixty  days,  upon  suspended 
sentence  to  Buena  Vista  prison  and  probation  for 
at  least  two  years 27 

Committed  to  jail  on  sentence  served  .  ( 3 

Committed  to  state  reformatory  (indeterminate  sen- 
tence— a  time  riot  allowed  by  law  to  be  fixed  by 
the  court)  10 

Committed  to  state  reformatory  and  sentence  sus- 
pended, conditionally,  with  jail  time  served 5 

Committed  to  state  penitentiary    4 


Total  convictions 49 

Total  per  cent  of  convictions  in  Juvenile  Court 44.6 

Total  per  cent  of  convictions  in  Criminal  Court  12.8 

Increase  in  convictions  in  four  years  of  Juvenile  Court  over 

twelve  years  in  Criminal  Court,  over 300% 

Allowing  for  two  or  three  boys  who  did  not  serve  any  sub- 
stantial time  in  jail,  the  total  per  cent  of  those  whom 
the  Judge  could  punish,  and  did  punish  by  jail,  reform- 
atory or  penitentiary  sentence  was  over  95% 


opinion  of  the  judge  anl  all  the  officers  was  unquestionably  guilty.  On  the 
reasonable  doubt  theory,  the  jury  acquitted  him.  Yet  there  are  four  cases  filed 
against  this  one  officer  of  Whitehead's  society.  But  the  Woman's  Protective 
League  takes  the  cases  just  as  they  are  found  upon  the  docket,  and  in  making 
comparisons  with  the  two  courts  we  are  following  the  same  procedure. 

b.  "Nolle  prossed"  means  that  the  district  attorney,  after  investigation,  was 
of  the  opinion  that  there  wasn't  sufficient  evidence  to  warrant  the  state  to  go 
to  the  expense  of  a  trial;  or  that  there  was  blackmail  or  other  motive  not  jus- 
tifying the  state  in  trying  the  case. 

The  Supreme  Court  has  held  that  this  is  the  exclusive  rignt  of  the  district 
attorney.  If  the  court  sought  to  interfere  it  would  only  disqualify  itself  in  try- 
ing the  case.  The  court  must  assume  that  the  district  attorney  is  using  his 
best  judgment  in  the  interest  of  justice — as  ihe  has  in  most  of  these  cases;  but 
the  Juvenile  Court  proposed  and  helped  secure  the  passage  of  the  law  recently 
taking  effect,  that  now  requires  the  district  attorney  to  fi!e  a  written  state- 
ment of  his  reasons  for  dismissing  such  cases,  with  the  right  of  the  court  to 
object  to  the  dismissal. 

c.  "Nolle  contendre"  is  practically  the  same  as  the  dismissal  of  the  defend- 
The   defendant  denies  his  guilt,   but   says   he  will  no  longer   contend  with   the 
state.     In  s,uch  cases  a  mere  technical  verdict  is  entered  that  requires  him  to 
pay  the  costs.     It  is  never  customary  to  impose  any  punishment  in  such  a  case. 

d.  It  has  been  the  custom  in  the  Juvenile  Court  to  give  a  defendant  who 
happens  to  be  poor  and  unable  to  give  a  bail  bond,   credit  on  his  punishment 
for  the  time  he  thus  serves  in  jail.     It  is  for  this  reason  that  sometimes  these 
jail   sentences   do  not  appear  in  the  court  minutes,   but  the   facts  and  records 
at  the  jail  will  show  that  they  serve  varying  periods  in  jail. 

54 


TABLE  "C". 

INDECENT  LIBERTY  CASES   IN   WEST  SIDE  CRIMINAL  COURT  FOR 

TWELVE  YEARS  AND   FOUR   MONTHS,   FROM   JANUARY 

1,  1901,  UP  TO  AND   INCLUDING   MAY   1,  1913. 

"Cases  of  indecent  liberties   (mostly  with  girls) 21 

Disposed  of  as  follows: 

Indecent  liberties  cases  nolle  pressed  (dismissed  by  dis- 
trict attorney)    H 

Nolle  centendre  by  district  attorney    1 

Concurrent  trial  and  sentence  in  same  case 2 

(These  cases  went  together  against  same  man,  who  is 
listed  as  one  of  the  four  convicted) 

Jury  refused  to  convict  and  case  dismissed 3 

17 

Jury   found   guilty    

Plead    guilty     2 

Total    convictions     4 

Sentenced  to  penitentiary  1  to  I1/;  years   1 

Sentenced  to  penitentiary  2  to  3  years   1 

Sentenced  to  penitentiary  5  to  8  years 1 

Sentenced  to  penitentiary  9  to  10  years   1 


Two  out  of  the  four  convictions  of  indecent  liberties  were  secured 
by  the  special  officer  of  the  Juvenile  Court. 

We  then  have  the  following  interesting  comparisons  as  to  indecent 
liberties  cases:  In  twelve  years  and  four  months  of  the  Criminal  Court 
only  21  cases  were  ever  even  filed. 

In  four  years  and  four  months  of  the  Juvenile  Court  32  such  cases 
were  filed. 

In  the  Criminal  Court  only  4  out  of  21  such  cases  were  convicted  in 
over  twelve  years. 

In  the  Juvenile  Court  11  out  of  32,  or  nearly  three  times  as  many, 
were  convicted  in  a  little  over  four  years. 

Per  cent  of  convictions  in  Criminal  Court  in  twelve  years  and 

four  months 19% 

Per  cent  of  convictions  in  Juvenile  Court  in  four  years  and  four 

months  34.*% 

Increase  by  Juvenile  Court  over  Criminal  C/ourt  in  per  cent  of  con- 
victions as  compared  to  cases  filed  and  tried  72% 

No  attempt  is  made  to  take  advantage  of  the  fact  the  Juvenile 
Court  has  only  had  jurisdiction  of  these  cases  about  five  years 
and  its  record  for  only  four  years  is  shown  here,  but  if  it  con- 
tinued in  the  same  proportion  for  twelve  years  to  be  matched 
with  the  Criminal  Court  it  would  show  an  efficiency  increase 
of  detections,  convictions  and  punishments  in  twelve  years  of 
over  .  200% 


*Several   cases   of   crime   against   nature   not   included. 

55 


TABLE  "D" 

INDECENT  LIBERTY  CASES  FILED  IN  THE  JUVENILE  COURT  DUR- 
ING  FOUR  YEARS  AND  FOUR   MONTHS   UNTIL  MAY  1,   1913. 

Total  number  of  cases   36 

Charge  withdrawn  by  district  attorney,  and  "contributing  to 

delinquency"  substituted 3 

Charge  withdrawn   and   "assault  and   battery"   substituted..       1 

Total  cases  disposed  of   32 

Nolle*  pressed    (dismissed   by   district   attorney) 12 

Tried  to  jury  and  found  not  guilty   5 

Tried  to  court  and  found  not  guilty 2 

Defendant  fugitive  and  never  arrested    1 

Pending  on  second  trial,  first  jury  having  disagreed    1 

Total  cases  dismissed  and  found  not  guilty,  or  where  court 

had  no  right  to  impose  any  sentence  or  punishment 21 

Total  cases  pleading  guilty  or  found  guilty  by  jury  in  which 

court  had  any  right  to  impose  sentence  and  punishment  11 

Sentenced  to  penitentiary  (as  shown  in  statement,  see  page 
60)  by  indeterminate  sentences,  in  one  case  involving 
a  little  girl  (a)  of  not  less  than  nine  nor  more  than  ten 
years,  and  in  others  that  would  have  kept  some  of  these 
defendant  for  life  in  the  discretion  of  the  board,  under 
the  indeterminate  sentence  act  5 

State   Reformatory,    indeterminate    2 

(b)  Sentenced  to  penitentiary,  sentence  suspended  after  ac- 
cused served  time  in  jail,  and  upon  conditions  imposed 
by  the  court,  concurred  in  by  district  attorney 1 

Sentence  suspended  after  serving  time  in  county  jail 3 

Total    11 

Total  per  cent  convictions  Criminal  Court  19% 

Total  per  cent  convictions  Juvenile  Court    34.4% 

Increase  over  Criminal  Court  in  per  cent  of  convictions  in 
Juvenile  Court  as  compared  by  cases  actually  filed  and 

tried 72% 

Total  punishments  of  all  cases  where  the  Juvenile  Court 
could  punish  in  such  cases,  through  jail,  reformatory  and 
penitentiary  sentences  100% 

Does  anyone  believe  that  150  out  of  172  cases  involving  the 
charge  of  rape  in  the  West  Side  Criminal  Court  of  Denver  dur- 
ing twelve  years  and  four  months  were  entitled  to  be  dismissed  ? 

(a)  He  was  given  not  less  than  nine  nor  more  than  ten  years  in  the  peni- 
tentiary.    Dr.    Bates   very  calmly   printed   the   lie    that   one   of   these   men   was 
taken   before   Judge    Shattuck   of    the    Criminal    Court,    after   the   judge    of   the 
Juvenile   Court  discharged  him  and  by  Judge  Shattuck   sentenced   to  the  pen- 
itentiary. 

(b)  In  one  of  these   cases  there   was   a  brief  penitentiary   sentence   after 
sixty  days  spent  in  jail,  on  the  suggestion  of  the  district  attorney,  because  the 
litt'e   girl   changed   her  statement  after  conviction,   and   there   was   other  testi- 
mony that  would  almost  have  compelled  the  granting  of  a  new  trial  'had  not 
defendant's  counsel  agreed  to  the  sentence  in  lieu   of  a  new  trial.     This   is  a 
case  that  is  made  a  great  deal  of  in  the  circulars  of  the  Woman's  Protective 
League  in  the  absence  of  any  knowledge  on  their  part  of  these  facts  that  com- 
pelled this  action  of  the  court  and  the  prosecuting  officers. 


56 


What  Do  These  Records  Signify? 

Does  anyone  believe  that  even  the  majority  of  those  ac- 
cused were  entitled  to  dismissal?  If  they  were,  then  it  is  an 
amazing  indictment  against  the  girlhood  and  womanhood  in- 
volved. Were  they  guilty  of  perjury  or  blackmail? 

The  difficulty  was,  as  repeatedly  pointed  out  by  the  Juvenile 
Court — the  severity  and  inelasticity  of  the  lawr  and  the  system 
devised  for  girlhood  protection.  In  most  cases  it  is  thus  proved 
as  almost  worse  than  no  protection  at  all.  With  the  construc- 
tive work  that  the  Juvenile  Court  has  gradually  builded,  making 
the  sentences  and  discretion  of  .the  court  more  elastic,  there  has 
gradually  arisen  a  wonderful  increase  in  efficiency.  It  shows, 
in  cases,  several  hundred  per  cent  as  to  detections,  convictions 
and  punishments. 

Benefit  of  a  Constructive    Policy. 

When  the  Juvenile  Court  concludes  the  balance  of  its 
Constructive  policy  by  securing  paid  adult  probation  officers 
and  one  court  with  exclusive  jurisdiction  to  try  all  of 
these  cases,  and  one  set  of  officers  who  can  be  held  to  strict 
accountability,  with  the  right  of  the  district  attorney  to  dismiss 
such  cases  only  by  filing  written  reasons  and  getting  the  court's 
c'onsent  under  the  law  recently  proposed  by  the  Juvenile  Court, 
there  is  not  any  question  that  this  efficiency  will  continue  to  rise 
higher  and  higher.  The  time  should  come  when  95  per  cent 
of  these  cases  filed  against  will  be  almost  certain  of  conviction 
and  something  done.  Whereas,  under  this  amazing  record  of 
the  West  Side  Criminal  Court  of  Denver,  less  than  13  per  cent  of 
all  the  cases  alleged  to  be  "rapists"  in  twelve  years  and  four 
months  in  that  c'ourt  received  any  sentence  to  prison,  and,  so  far 
as  we  are  advised,  any  punishment  whatever  by  the  state. 

Wonderful  Comparisons  of  Sex  Cases  Favorable    to    Work 
of  Juvenile  Court  Over  Criminal  Court. 

To  sum  up  then,  as  compared  to  the  Criminal  Court  recordsr 
as  shown  by  these  tables,  out  of  no  cases  involving  the  charge 
of  rape  in  four  years,  the  Juvenile  Court,  through  the  aid  of  its 
officers,  the  special  police  officer,  Mr.  Phillips,  and  the  district 
attorney,  secured  nearly  45  per  cent  of  convictions,  as  against 

57 


13  per  cent  of  convictions  of  similar  cases  in  twelve  years  of 
the  Criminal  Court.  This  is  an  increase  of  over  300  per  cent  in 
efficiency  in  just  four  years.  It  will  also  be  seen  from  the  ap- 
pended tables  of  undisputed  facts  that  61  out  of  no  cases  cover- 
ing the  four  years  referred  to  in  the  circulars  issued  by  The 
Woman's  Protective  League,  were  dismissed  or  disposed  of 
under  conditions  for  which  no  right  minded  person  can  possibly 
criticise  the  Juvenile  Court. 

Juvenile  Court  Sent  Over  95%  of  Those  Convicted  to  Jail 

or  Prison. 

That  left  only  49  out  of  no  rape  cases  in  four  years  and 
four  months  in  which  the  Judge  could  take  any  action  at  all, 
and  out  of  this  49  cases,  with  possibly  one  or  two  proper  excep- 
tions, all  of  them  actually  did  time  in  jail,  the  state  prison— 
Buena  Vista  Reformatory — or  the  penitentiary  at  Canon  City. 

Yet  there  is  the  infamous  lie  with  all  of  its  brazen  reckless- 
ness set  forth  in  these  anonymous  circulars,  that  68  out  of  84 
of  these  cases  in  the  Juvenile  Court  went  scot  free  by  the  Judge's 
action  without  any  punishment  at  all.  Let  also  this  important 
•fact  be  borne  in  mind :  out  of  nearly  all  of  those  cases  that  were 
dismissed,  through  no  fault  of  the  Juvenile  Court,  with  very  -few 
exceptions,  every  one  of  them  served  time  in  jail.  'It  is  hard  to 
understand  how  any  one  interested  in  the  protection  of  girls  could 
ask  for  a  more  satisfactory  record,  especially  by  comparison  with 
the  records  under  the  old  system,  and  in  fac'e  of  the  handicaps 
and  difficulties  pointed  out.  They  are  readily  recognized  by  every 
honest,  unprejudiced  official  or  person  who  has  ever  really  come 
in  contact  with  the  trial  and  disposition  of  these  cases. 

Indecent  Liberty  Cases. 

Another  class  of  difficult  sex  cases  are  the  indecent  liberties 
cases.  These  also  furnish  the  subject  of  similar  amazing  and 
reckless  missstatements,  half-truths — always  worse  than  delib- 
erate lies — and  unblushing  falsehoods  in  the  circulars  of  The 
Woman's  Protective  League.  Comparative  tables  are  here  made 
between  the  handling  and  disposition  of  these  cases  and  the  old 
system  in  the  West  Side  Criminal  Court,  and  under  the  work 
of  the  Juvenile  Court. 

58 


Unsatisfactory  Results  With  Juries. 

It  is  provoking  to  relate  that  juries  of  business  men?  hus- 
bands and  fathers  of  children,  c'alled  upon  to  try  these  cases 
often  found  a  verdict  of  not  guilty,  and  that  most  of  them 
through  such  verdicts  or  dismissals,  or  for  lack  of  sufficient 
evidence  to  convict,  were  discharged  as  they  had  been  in  the 
Criminal  Court;  but  the  comparisons  between  the  old  methods 
in  the  Criminal  Court  and  those  in  the  Juvenile  Court  are  all  in 
or  of  the  Juvenile  Court. 

It  appears  from  these  records  that  have  been  secured 
through  the  courtesy  and  assistance  of  the  clerk's  office  of  the 
West  Side  Criminal  Court,  by  an  officer  most  familiar  with  these 
cases,  that  out  of  a  grand  total  of  only  twenty-one  cases  of  inde- 
cent liberties,  involving  children,  mostly  girls,  that  were  disclosed 
in  Denver  in  twelve  years1  and  prosecuted  in  the  West  Side  Crim- 
inal Court,  only  four  were  found  guilty  and  punished.  But 
these  startling  facts  never  aroused  ex-President  Curtis  of  the 
city  railroad  company,  or  the  henchmen  hiding  behind  the  skirts 
of  the  Woman's  Protective  League. 

Increase  of  Over  Two  Hundred  Per  Cent  in  Efficiency. 

These  records  show  that  as  against  twenty  such  cases  in 
the  Criminal  Court  in  twelve  years,  there  were  thirty-two  in  the 
Juvenile  Court  in  four  years,  an  increase  by  comparative  periods 
of  over  200  per  cent.  This  was  not  because  then  norc 

cases,  but  because  there  was  better  work  being  done  among  the 
children  in  finding  them  out.  A  larger  per  cent  have  been  con- 
victed and  punished  than  formerly.  The  consolation  that  our 
officers  have  in  the  lack  of  convictions  by  juries  in  many  of 
these  cases  or  dismissal  through  conditions  over  which  they  had 
no  control,  is  that  most  of  these  men,  even  though  acquitted, 
but  believed  by  our  officers  to  be  guilty,  served  some  time  *r- 
jail  and  were  put  to  the  expense  of  a  defense. 

Disposition  of  Cases  in   Which  Court   Had   Any   Right   or 
Power  to   Punish. 

It  was  only  in  the  case  of  these  eleven  men  thus  convicted 
out  of  the  thirty-two  cases  brought  to  court  in  four  years,  that 
the  Judge  of  the  Court  had  any  right  or  power  to  punish  them. 

Ami  the  'II  punished.     Four  were  sent  to  the  penitentiary, 

59 


two  to  Buena  Vista  prison,  the  other  five  served  substantial  jail 
sentences.  For  the  longest  positive  sentence,  of  not  less  than 
nine  nor  more  than  ten  years  in  the  penitentiary,  was  that  of  a 
man  whose  indecent  liberties  were  upon  a  little  girl.  Yet,  in 
this  case,  leading  Christian  citizens  and  others  brought  their 
influence  to  bear  to  get  him  off;  and  to  cap  the  climax  of  appeals 
a  signed  petition  was  presented  by  some  of  the  mothers  of  the 
little  girls  involved,  asking  for  clemency. 

Indeterminate  Sentences  for  Life  in  the  Penitentiary  Given 
by  Juvenile  Court. 

In  several  of  the  other  cases  there  was  entered  a  plea  or 
proof — not  uncommon — that  the  defendants  were  more  or  less 
irresponsible.  But  as  is  the  custom  with  the  court,  under  the 
indeterminate  sentence  law  of  the  state,  and  in  line  with  the  most 
enlightened  work  in  these  cases,  the  matter  is  left  to  the  prison 
authorities,  their  doctors  and  experts,  and  some  of  these  men 
were  given  a  sentence  that  enabled  the  prison  authorities  to 
keep  them  for  life.  If  the  prison  authorities  concluded  they  were 
dangerous,  these  men  might  be  kept  in  the  penitentiary  from 
tliree  to  forty  years. 

Life  Imprisonment. 

If  the  Woman's  Protective  League  is  of  the  opinion  that 
that  is  the  way  to  protect  the  girls  against  these  particular  men, 
they  have  .only  to  make  their  appeal  to  the  board  of  priscr.i 
management,  and  upon  a  proper  showing  no  doubt  the  men  can 
be  kept  incarcerated  for  life. 

This  method  of  statement  and  comparison  of  these  cases, 
in  view  of  the  utter  impossibility  to  present  circumstantial  details 
and  the  evidence,  appearance,  manner  and  demeanor  of  the  wit- 
nesses, and  many  side  lights  that  can  only  app-ear  during  the 
progress  of  the  hearings  and  trials,  is  the  only  kind  of  fail- 
statement  or  presentation  that  can  be  justly  made  under  the 
circ'umstances. 

Outrageous  Falsehood   and  Half  Truths   About    Particular 

Cases. 

But  we  are  asked  by  friendly  inquirers  to  give  the  facts 
about  some  of  the  seven  or  eight  cases  that  the  "Woman's  Pro- 

60 


.  e  League"  has  tried  to  single  out  as  presenting  some  of  the 
•  ible  conditions''  that  they  discovered.     It  is  to  be  regretted 
that  the  physical  limitations  and  expense  of  pamphlets  and  print- 
ire  such  that  only  a  few  of  these  can  be  gone  into.     It  would 
take  literally  volumes  to  go  into  all  of  the  evidence,  and  circum- 
ces  of  all  these  cases  that  have  been  tried  over  a  long  period 
<_-ars.    But  the  Juvenile  Judge  tried  98  per  cent  of  them  (giv- 
the   lie   again  to   their  exaggerated  statements   of  his  ab- 
es).     A  few  are  described  as  excellent  illustrations  of  that 
kind  of  irresponsibility  and  recklessness  for  which  one  of  the 
authors  of  these  circulars  was  publicly  convicted  by  the   State 
Board  of  Charities  and  Corrections.      It  is  not  done  with  any 
idea  of  convincing  them. 

Bad  Habits  of  Opposition. 

It  has  been  their  habit  and  custom  to  rendef  verdicts  in  cases 
and  against  men,  women  and  institutions,  without  knowing  the 
evidence,  or  investigating  in  advance,  a  crime  for  which  some 
of  them  were  convicted  by  the  eminent  men  and  women  on  the 
State  Board  of  Charities  and  Corrections.  Those  who  care  to 
take  the  verdict^  of  such  reckless  irresponsibles,  who  admit  that 
they  were  never  present  at  one  of  these  trials,  are  welc'ome  to 
their  conclusions.  Those  who  care  to  take  the  opinions  of  those 
who  have  betrayed  a  paranoiacal  hate  ^against  the  Juvenile  Court 
of  Denver  are  welcome  to  their  conclusions.  After  its  thirteen 
years  of  work  and  struggle  for  the  childhood  of  our  city,  state 
and  nation,  and  its  approval  ten  times  by  the  people  of  Denver, 
if  they  believe  it  is  organized  to  protect  rapists  and  the  de- 
bauchers  of  girls,  as  charged  by  the  mind-diseased  "Woman's 
Protective  League,"  they  are  welcome  to  their  c'onclusions. 
There  are  a  few  such  people  no  doubt  whose  minds  are  as  thor- 
oughly steeped  in  the  venom  of  hate,  jealousy  and  revenge  as 
these  unfortunate  creatures  who  run  amuck — not  with  knives 
and  daggers,  but  circulars  of  half-truths  and  the  real  facts 
secreted,  that  constitute  the  modern  weapons  of  assassination. 
Those  who  are  thus  taken  in  by  envenomed  madness — and  there 
are  some  in  Denver — are  to  be  pitied.  They  can  harm  no  one 
but  themselves. 


61 


Some  Samples  of  Criminality. 

After  we  have  shown  up  a  fewr  examples  of  this  madness 
and  added  to  the  verdict  of  guilty  already  found  against  the 
chief  author  of  these  envenomed  circulars,  we  shall  feel  that  no 
one  can  reasonably  ask  us  to  answer  every  rumor,  half-truth  or 
misrepresentation  that  the  authors  of  the  "Woman's  Protective 
League"  and  those  political  soreheads  and  bitter  enemies  secretly 
working  with  them,  see  fit  to  launch  against  us.  They  seem 
abundantly  supplied  with  the  cash  to  do  it.  They  also  have 
such  active  and  wealthy  participants  as  Mr.  Rodney  Curtis,  ex- 
president  of  the  Denver  Tramway  Company. 

The  Case  of  Tom   K. 

We  have  already  called  attention  to  their  first  case  of  a  man, 
one  "Tom  K.,  who  raped  three  girls,  and  Judge  Lindsey  did 
nothing  until  the  third  victim,  when  he  sentenced  him  to  four 
months  in  the  reformatory."  As  shown,  Tom  K.  was  a  seven- 
teen year  old  kid.  In  the  first  case  the  girl  swore  that  he  did 
not  rape  her,  and  the  District  Attorney  discharged  the  charge 
of  rape,  but  through  our  administrative  work  to  get  hold  of 
this  youth,  we  secured  him  on  a  minor  offense  that  did  not  per- 
mit us  to  send  him  to  states  prison.  The  second  c'ase  was  where 
we  secured  a  confession  from  the  girl,  and  under  conditions 
where  it  was  dangerous  to  have  a  public  trial,  lest  the  boy  deny- 
ing the  charge  would  have  been  acquitted  by  the  jury.  So 
securing  a  confession  on  promise  of  probation,  we  imposed  a 
sentence,  to  states  prison.  It  was  suspended  on  condition  the 
youth  lead  an  exemplary  life.  Months  afterwards,  on  suspicion, 
a  third  charge  of  rape  was  preferred  against  him.  But  the  girl 
swore  that  the  boy  did  nothing  of  the  kind,  and  again  the  Dis- 
trict Attorney  was  compelled  to  dismiss  the  case.  But  through 
our  administrative  work  in  getting  him  on  probation,  we  now 
had  a  "cinch"  on  that  youth.  Because  he  did  not  inform  the 
officer  that  two  girls  who  visited  him  on  Curtis  street  had  gone 
with  two  of  his  chums  to  a  Petersburg  roadhouse  in  an  adjoining 
county,  where  one  of  them  was  seduced,  the  Judge  sentenced 
him  to  the  penitentiary  upon  an  indeterminate  sentence  of  five 
years  on  that  second  case,  when  under  the  old  criminal  court 
system  nothing  whatever  would  have  been  done.  But  the  district 

62 


attorney  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  it  was  his  first  offense 
in  a  felony  case  and  the  court  had  no  right  to  send  him  to  the 
ary  because  he  was  under  twenty-one  years  of  age,  in 
which  case  the  statute  requires  that  the  Judge  send  him  to  the 
state  reformatory,  or  Buena  Vista  prison — that  is  a  part  of  our 
penitentiary  system.  The  court  was  therefore  compelled  to 
accept  the  suggestion  that  it  had  been  too  severe  under  the  law, 

change  the  sentence  to  Buena  Vista  prison.  Here  all  such 
.'.is  serve  from  two  to  six  months  in  prison.  With  this  the 
court  has  absolutely  nothing  fo  do.  Under  the  law,  as  pointed 
out,  the  sentences  are  indeterminate.  No  time  is  fixed,  and  no 
time  can  be  fixed  by  the  court.  The  Board  of  Prison  Managers 
determine  that  question.  The  prison  is  overcrowded  and  it  has 
been  the  custom  to  keep  such  youths  for  the  periods  mentioned. 
This  is  one  reason  why  jail  sentences  are  often  resorted  to  in 
such  cases  as  being  more  satisfactory.  The  facts  are  therefore 
as  shown  by  the  evidence  and  as  will  be  sworn  to  by  the  court, 
the  district  attorney  and  all  concerned,  that  this  Tom  K.  did 
not  rape  three  girls.  He  raped  one,  and  alone  on  the  strength 
of  the  administrative  i^'ork  of  the  court,  he  zuas  given  the  limit 
of  /  and  he  actually  served  the  term  usually  served  in 

such  cases,  although  he  was  released  by  the  prison  board  a  fewr 
weeks  before  its  expiration  on  the  plea  of  his  mother.  There 
are  three  powerful  facts  in  connection  with  this  case : 

First — The  jail  and  reformatory  sentences  did  Tom  K.  no 
good.  After  having  experienced  these  forms  of  punishment,  he 
was  apprehended  for  other  serious  crimes  and  returned  to  prison 
again. 

New  Methods  and  Old. 

Second — This  important  fact:  Tom  K/s  chum  who  took  the 
girl  across  the  county  line  out  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Juvenile 
Court  and  was  tried  in  the  adjoining  county  for  the  statutory 
offense  against  that  girl.  He  denied  it  and  was*- promptly  ac- 
quitted by  the  jury.  If  that  case  had  been  tried  in  the  Juvenile 
Court  of  Denver,  the  chances  are  that  he  would  not  have  been 
acquitted  and  the  girl  exposed  and  condemned.  We  would  have 
convicted  him,  just  as  we  convicted  Tom  K.  But  it  would  have 
been  through  the  work  that  the  "Woman's  Protective  League" 

is  howling  against  and  trying  to  get  the  court  recalled  for. 

^ 


The  Man  Higher  Up. 

A  third  fact — This  case  was  used  as  a  Comparison  with 
what  is  known  as  the  Farns worth  case,  that  was  tried  in  the 
West  Side  Court  and  was  one  of  the  exceptional  cases  that  were 
tried  there  and  the  defendant  punished.  Farnsworth  would 
undoubtedly  have  been  punished  in  the  Juvenile  Court,  but  the 
parties  having  its  prosecution  in  charge,  deliberately  carried  the 
case  to  the  West  Side  Criminal  Court.  The  mother  of  the  girl 
swore  in  the  Juvenile  Court  that  the  prosecuting  officers  in  that 
c'ourt  would  not  listen  to  her  plea  that  a  prominent  politician 
and  wealthy  man  had  also  committed  an  offense  against  the 
girl,  and  that  she  had  been  in  rooming  houses  and  wine  rooms. 
Not  one  step  was  taken  by  Whitehead  or  his  offic'ers  to  prosecute 
these'  rooming  house  or  wineroom  keepers,  or  "the  man  higher 
up,"  until  the  Juvenile  Court  Judge  had  denounced  all  and 
sundry  in  open  court  for  their  effort  to  protect  these  creatures 
of  vice.  The  evidence  was  that  the  man  who  was  sent  to  the 
penitentiary  was  poor  and  without  friends,  but  that  he  had  an 
excellent  reputation  until  he  got  into  trouble  with  this  girl, 
when  an  effort  was  made  as  frankly  confessed  in  our  c'ourt  to 
blackmail  him.  The  prominent  politician  and  \vealthy  business 
man  who  went  unwhipped  of  justice,  and  against  whom  with 
all  the  evidence,  public  condemnation  and  demands,  the  Juvenile 
Court  could  secure  no  complaint,  had  a  bad  reputation  as  to  his 
relations  with  young  women  and  girls'.  Now  these  in  brief  are 
the  facts  about  the  first  c'ase  detailed  by  Dr.  Bates  and  sent  all 
over  the  East  to  inflame  the  minds — not  only  of  the  people  of 
Denver  but  of  the  entire  nation — against  the  object  of  her  hate. 
It  is  the  kind  of  thing  that  the  corrupt  privilege  interests,  that 
also  hate  the  court,  immediately  seize  upon  to  send  its  ex-presi- 
dent of  the  city  railroad  company  to  prominent  women  in  Den- 
ver to  get  them  interested  in  Dr.  Bates'  "Woman's  Protective 
League"-  -" for  the  protection  of  girl  children." 

Negro  Rapist  Lie  Nailed. 

Take  another  case :  they  point  out  among  the  "horrible  con- 
ditions" several  cases  of  rape  upon  young  girls  by  negroes — 
"These  negroes  were  discharged  by  Lindsey."  Especial  em- 
phasis is  laid  upon  this  fact  and  tfye  circulars  have  been  sent  to 

64 


members  of  Congress  from  the  South.  -Xo\v,  here  are  the  facts 
"in  the  negro  cases,  and  we  take  them  because  the  opposition  took 
them  as  being  most  inclined  to  carry  out  their  purpose  in  in- 
flaming the  mind  of  the  public  against  the  court  to  produc'e  the 
"psychological  condition"  for  his  recall: 

John  Gray,  a  negro  man,  appears  to  have  been  charged 
on  these  minutes  of  the  court  records,  or  jail  blotter,  with  rape 
on  a  twelve-year-old  girl,  and  the  fact  is  he  was  discharged. 
This  girl  was  in  the  habit  of  running  away.  She  had  been  told 
if  she  continued  in  such  conduct,  that  some  bad  man  would  do 
her  some  such  injury.  It  was  only  natural  that  we  should  sus- 
pect something  of  the  kind.  Now,  through  our  administrative 
work,  the  Judge  has  succeeded  in  getting  the  truth  out  of  chil- 
dren and  bringing  to  light  more  cases  of  this  kind  within  four 
years  than  were  clone,  perhaps,  in  ten  years  under  the  old  sys- 
tem. But  there  is  always  a  danger  of  a  mistake.  It  proved  to 
be  so  in  this  case.  The  little  girl  told  the  Judge,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  her  mother  and  the  lady  assistant  judge  of  our  c'ourt — 
Mrs.  Gregory — that  during  one  of  her  runaway  spells  she  had 
stayed  all  night  with  a  certain  negro  man. 

Dangers  of  Imaginative  Children. 

With  great  indignation  the  court  ordered  the  special  police 
officer,  Mr.  Phillips,  to  arrest  the  man.  The  mother  of  the  child 
protested  and  said  the  little  girl  was  given  to  ghost  stories.  But 
notwithstanding  this  objection  of  the  mother,  we  had  that  colored 
man  arrested  on  the  statutory  charge.  He  was  put  in  jail  under 
heavy  bond.  The  mother  objected  to  our  action  and  tried  to 
leave  town  with  the  c'hild.  We  had  them  apprehended  so  that  an 
investigation  could  be  made.  We  had  a  lady  physician,  with 
the  mother's  consent,  examine  the  child.  The  little  girl  swore  in 
court  that  she  did  tell  a  "ghost  story."  That  the  poor  old  col- 
ored man  had  never  molested  her  in  the  slightest  \vay.  We  had 
detectives  investigate  the  child's  and  the  colored  man's  where- 
abouts the  night 'of  her  runaway.  It  was  disclosed  that  it  was 
impossible  for  her  to  have  been  with  the  colored  man.  It  was 
one  of  those  cases  that  psychologists  like  Stanley  Hall  warn  us 
against — false  charges  of  children  against  men  in  sex  cases.  We 
have  had  a  number  of  such  cases.  The  district  attorney,  of 

65 


course,  dismissed  it,  as  he  ought  to  have  done.  The  coi:r:  was 
so  impressed  with  the  injustice  done  that  old  colored  man  that 
we  gave  him  a  personal  letter  of  apology  for  the  time  he  had 
spent  in  jail,  \vhen  he  was  absolutely  innocent  of  having  ever 
touched  the  child.  Yet,  this  is  one  of  the  leading  cases  they 
selected,  and  it  is  just  as  reckless  as  the  other  statements  of  their 
circular. 

The  other  horrible  outrages  in  cases  of  negro  rapists  "dis- 
charged" are  subject  to  just  as  simple  explanations.  Such  as  the 
fact  they  were  relations  between  young  c'olored  people  who  got 
married  and  were  discharged  by  the  district  attorney,  since 
through  their  getting  married  the  case  fell  by  operation  of  law. 

The  Gatewood  Case. 

But  one  of  the  awful  cases  against  Judge  Lindsey.  over 
which  there  has  been  much  hysteria  and  several  pamphlets  from 
the  "Woman's  Protective  League,"  is  the  "horrible"  case  "of 
a  man  seventy  years  of  age  taking  indecent  liberties  with  a 
little  girl  and  giving  her  a  vile  disease,  and  Judge  Lindsey  sent- 
him  to  Kansas  with  his  daughter."  It  is  known  in  the  circular 
as  the  "Gatewood  case."  Here  are  the  facts: 

The  Truth  About  It. 

Judge  Lindsey  did  not  try  the  case  at  all.  It  was  one  of 
the  very  few  cases  tried  by  Assistant  Judge  Class — now  on  the 
District  Court  bench.  The  jury  were  disposed  to  acquit  the 
man,  but  they  found  him  technically  guilty,  with  a  recommenda- 
tion of  leniency  and  mercy.  That  meant  that  unless  the  Judge 
acted  upon  it,  in  some  similar  case  the  jury  would  acquit  or 
refuse  to  agree,  and,  as  is  customary,  the  Judge  followed  the 
recommendation  of  the  jury — made  up  of  business  men  and 
fathers  of  children.  The  testimony  was  that  the  man  was  old, 
on  the  verge  of  death,  and  it  was  very  questionable  if  he  was 
at  all  responsible  for  what  he  did.  The  district  attorney  informs 
us  in  writing  that  there  was  no  evidence  whatever  that  he  had 
imparted  any  disease  to  the  child.  The  testimony  of  the  expert 
physicians  and  others  was  that  he  was  so  enfeebled  in  body  and 
mind  that  it  was  not  only  questionable  if  he  was  responsible  for 
his  acts,  but  that  a  sentence  to  the  penitentiary  would  mean  a 
death  sentence.  The  district  attorney  thereupon  recommended 

66 


n.dge  Class — who  tried  the  case — that  the  recommendation 
of  the  jury  be  followed  and  that  the  sentence  be  suspended, 
after  the  man  had  been  in  jail  for  several  months,  and  that  he 
be  paroled  to  the  custody  of  his  daughter,  who  could  give  him 
care  and  attention  on  her  farm  in  Kansas.  Judge  Class  writes : 
"I  simply  refused  to  commit  judicial  murder  by  committing  that 
demented  man  to  the  penitentiary,  when  the  chief  object  of  the 
prosecution,  the  protection  of  society,  was,  under  the  circum- 
stances, amply  obtained  by  the  action  taken.  Those  having  the 
matter  in  charge,  who  are  conversant  with  all  the  facts  and 
circumstances  attending  the  case,  were  all  of  the  opinion  that 
the  proper  thing  was  done." 

The  Case  of  Some  Boys. 

Another  case  is  that  of  several  young  boys  who  had  had 
improper  relations  with  a  sixteen-year-old  girl,  who  was  said  to 
be  slightly  feeble  minded.  We  will  not  refer  to  the  unmention- 
able lies  and  senseless  gossip  picked  up  by  Dr.  Bates  and  always 
credited  by  her  in  any  subject  pertaining  to  sex,  such  as  is 
detailed  in  this  circular.  But  it  informs  us  that  the  Judge  let 
all  of  those  boys  go  sc'ot  free.  The  statement  is  a  lie.  Here 
are  the  facts : 

The  court  had  been  provoked  on  more  than  one  occasion 
by  a  jury  acquitting  boys  who  are  almost  sure  to  get  into  trouble 
with  a  girl  of  this  kind.  The  evidence  disclosed  such  a  girl  was 
more  or  less  open  in  her  lewdness.  Such  an  unfortunate  girl 
is  always  a  severe  temptation  to  young  boys  in  a  neighborhood. 
YVe  have  found  that  even  boys  of  the  best  families  and  who  have 
had  the  best  Christian  training  have  been  involved  in  such  a  case. 
The  district  attorney,  the  Judge  and  the  officers  of  the  court 
were  impressed  with  the  lack  of  protection  for  a  girl  like  this 
in  a  former  case,  where  the  boys — as  usual,  denying  it — were 
acquitted  by  the  jury.  They  were  congratulated  by  their  ad- 
miring friends  in  the  neighborhood. 

Something  Done  as  Against  Nothing  Done. 

The  girl  was  turned  out  with  a  charge  of  perjury  on  her 

soul  and  exposed  to  ridicule.     Rather  than  have  a  repetition  of 

a  scene,  and  such  futile  results,  after  much  difficulty   we 


secured  a  confession  from  these  boys.  Although  one  or  two 
persisted  to  the  end  that  they  hadn't  had  any  actual  relations 
with  the  girl.  This  confession  as  to  some  of  them  was  only 
secured  on  the  promise  of  probation.  It  was  better  than  to  wit- 
ness a  repetition  of  the  sc'enes  described  in  the  farce  of  a  former 
jury  trial.  The  court  gave  those  boys  and  their  parents  a  lecture 
that  they  will  never  forget  and  sentenced  every  one  of  them  to 
the  county  jail,  where  they  had  a  good  substantial  experience  of 
jail  life  and  what  they  were  coming  to  and  what  they  would 
get  in  treble  doses  if  they  ever  acted  improperly  with  a  girl 
again,  whether  she  consented  to  it  or  not.  There  is  nothing  to 
be  done  with  a  poor  girl  like  that  but  send  her  to  the  state  train- 
ing school  where  she  will  be  away  from  temptations  and  an 
unmoral  disposition  to  thus  attract  boys.  The  district  attorney, 
the  parents,  the  officers  and  all  concerned,  who  knew  of  the 
difficulties  referred  to  and  the  splendid  results  in  that  case  and 
the  severe  and  satisfactory  lesson  taught  those  boys,  heartily 
approved  this  disposition  of  the  case. 

Incredible  Falsehoods. 

Another  case:  The  "horrified"  public  are  informed  that  a 
man — Earl  Hoffman — "who  took  liberties  with  a  little  girl, 
went  scot  free  and  was  dismissed  in  Lindsey's  court.  He  was 
taken  to  the  West  Side  on  another  charge,  where  he  was  sent 
to  prison  by  Judge  Shattuck  in  April,  1912,"  The  story  is  an 
infamous  lie.  The  records  of  the  West  Side  Court  will  show 
any  investigators  that  there  was  no  such  case  before  Judge 
Shattuck.  The  truth  is,  as  shown  by  the  records  of  the  Juve- 
nile Court,  that  this  man  was  sent  to  the  penitentiary  at  Canon 
City  by  Judge  Lindsey  for  his  indecent  conduct  towards  a  little 
girl.  Lies  like  this  are  constantly  recurring  in  their  circulars. 

Another  case:  (And  let  it  be  said  that  this  case  now  de- 
scribed is  typical  of  a  number  of  such  cases.)  "Man  charged 
with  rape  of  a  sixteen-year-old  girl,  and  discharged  by  Lindsey 
on  condition  that  he  pay  a  certain  sum  of  money  per  month  for 
the  care  of  the  child." 

A  Simple  Explanation. 

Those  who  are  not  present  at  the  trials  of  these  cases  know 
none  of  the  facts  and  should  not  jump  at  the  conclusion  that  this 

68 


was  an  improper  thing  for  the  Judge  to  have  done.  A  trial 
meant  that  the  girl  would  be  dragged  through  the  mire  of  pub- 
licity, that  her  character  would  be  assailed,  that  on  the  rule  of 
reasonable  doubt  the  chances  were  that  (as  shown  by  the 
records  in  the  great  majority  of  sex  c'ases  in  other  courts;,  it 
would  have  either  been  dismissed  or  the  man  found  not  guilty 
by  the  jury,  or  they  would  have  failed  to  agree.  And  often,  as 
in  this  case,  at  the  request  of  the  parent  of  the  girl,  our  officers 
have  secured  a  confession  from  the  boy  or  man  on  condition 
that  he  be  placed  on  probation,  or  the  case  continued,  or  sentence 
suspended,  and  that  he  will  acknowledge  the  paternity  of  the 
child  and  help  in  its  support.  There  are  many  cases  like  this. 
It  is  often  much  wiser  to  bring  about  such  results  than  to  allow 
the  accused  to  go  scot  free;  as  was  done  in  nearly  every  such 
case  under  the  old  system.  That  particular  case  was  a  sixteen- 
year-old  boy.  He  had  made  his  first  mistake  with  that  girl. 
The  boy  learned  a  lesson,  the  girl  learned  $.  lesson,  and  the 
case  was  wisely  handled  from  every  standpoint. 

A  Prosecution  Impossible. 

Another  case:  The  public'  are  told  that  J.  O.  raped  a  six- 
teen-year-old girl,  and  was  "discharged  by  Lindsey."  Now,  this 
is  a  typical  case  of  some  of  our  difficulties,  and  let  fathers  and 
mothers  understand  it.  J.  O.  worked  in  the  offices  of  a  rail- 
road company  in  Denver.  He  was  a  youth  of  eighteen,  and  at 
night  worked  in  a  picture  show.  The  mother  of  this  girl  found 
out  she  had  gone  wrong;  the  girl  stated  it  was  this  young  man. 
The  young  man  was  arrested  and  brought  before  the  Judge.  He 
brought  the  finest  kind  of  character  recommendations.  He  de- 
nied positively  any  improper  relations  with  the  girl.  She  was 
known  to  us  as  one  of  the  "giddy,"  careless  girls  who  hang 
around  the  picture  shows,  flirting  with  boys.  The  mother  of  the 
girl  threatened  to  commit  suicide  if  the  case  was  brought  to 
trial.  She  said  it  would  ruin  her,  and  ruin  her  daughter.  We 
knew  the  uncertainty  of  a  trial  or  conviction.  And  we  knew 
if  the  jury  did  convict,  it  would  be  absurd  to  send  the  boy  to 
the  penitentiary.  But  we  also  kne\v  he  ought  to  have  a  lesson. 
Xow.  it  was  the  administrative  work  of  the  court  that  did 
something  in  that  case  that  spared  the  mother  and  the  girl.  We 

69 


secured  a  confession  from  that  boy  after  much  difficulty — that 
for  the  only  time  in  his  life  he  had  gone  wrong  with  this  girl,  who 
admitted  she  was  as  much  to  blame  as  the  boy.  By  the  consent 
and  with  the  request  of  the  girl's  own  mother,  and  the  girl  her- 
self, the  boy — after  getting  a  taste  of  jail  life — was  put  on 
probation  on  condition  that  he  help  the  court  protect  the  girls 
in  the  moving  picture  show.  This  boy  was  a  devout  church 
member,  helped  his  mother  and  in  every  way  was  an  exemplary 
character.  But  in  a  moment  of  weakness  he  had  brought  into 
his  life  the  sin  that  comes  in  far  more  cases  of  such  boys  and 
girls  than  the  public  have  any  notion  of.  The  Juvenile  Court's 
motto  is,  "Overcome  evil  with  good."  That  boy  reported  to  the 
Judge  of  the  Court  regularly  for  over  a  year.  He  became  a 
splendid  helper  in  the  court,  and  through  the  Confidence  estab- 
lished, we  were  able  to  bring  about  a  much  better  condition  in 
the  picture  show,  to  furnish  proof  of  carelessness  that  we  could 
not  have  gotten  in  any  other  way,  and  I  am  sure  that  the  ad- 
ministrative work  in  that  one  case  saved  a  number  of  young  girls 
from  a  life  of  shame. 

A  Frank  Question  in  Sex  Cases. 

Now,  mothers  and  fathers,  wasn't  that  better  than  dragging 
that  girl  through  the  mire  of  publicity,  against  the  tearful  pleas 
of  her  own  mother,  with  all  of  the  punishment  that  would  come 
to  the  girl  and  the  chances  of  the  acquittal  of  the  boy,  in  wnich 
case  the  court  would  have  had  no  control  over  him  and  no  such 
good  work  as  that  described  c'ould  have  ever  been  done? 

But  we  could  go  on  in  case  after  case  like  this;  cases  that 
are  actually,  through  the  half-truths  and  misrepresentations  of 
jail  blotters,  minute  notes  of  court  orders,  given  to  the  public 
to  inflame  their  minds,  so  as  to  destroy  this  work  that  is  grad- 
ually reaching  into  the  lives  of  prominent  citizens  and  politicians 
who  are  panic  stricken  at  its  far-reaching  effects.  They  are,  of 
course,  expected  to  secretly  line  up  behind  the  Woman's  Protec- 
tive League  to  destroy  this  court. 

Only  One  of  Their  Outrages. 

It  is  a  crime  to  divulge  the  identity  of  some  of  the  parties 
in  some  of  these  cases,  as  ruthlessly  done  by  the  Woman's  Pro- 
tective League,  where  the  people  are  poor  and  friendless. 

70 


In  some  of  these  cases,  of  poor  people,  without  friends  or 
influence,  we  find  them  ruthlessly  exposed;  some  of  them  have 
come  with  tearful  and  frenzied  anxiety  lest  in  the  efforts  of 
these  people  to  ruin  the  court,  they  also  ruin  them.  Some  of 
these  young  people  have  married.  Some  of  them  have  children. 
As  a  result  of  our  administrative  work,  some  of  them  are  living 
happily,  and  it  is  only  a  part  of  the  outrage  and  infamy  of  these 
anonymous  circulars  that  an  effort  is  being  made  to  disclose* 
their  identity  and  to  break  up  their  homes.  It  is  scarcely 

•ssary  to  say  that  neither  the  children,  the  girls  nor  their 

•its  have  anything  but  tearful  gratitude  and  thanksgiving 
for  this  work  that  has  been  done  after  the  manner  that  the 

ter  Himself  would  -.1  its  do  it.  Only  the  devils  of 

hate  inc'arnate,  or  those  honestly  misled  by  them,  have  ever 
taken  the  slightest  exception  to  it. 

Juvenile  Court  Should  Handle  Sex  Cases. 

The  truth  is  that  this  entire  sex  problem,  as  it  is  growing 
in  the  cities,  ought  to  be  handled  by  a  special  institution,  such 
as  the  Juvenile  Court  of  Denver.  This  Court  differs — or  has 
differed — from  other  Juvenile  Courts  in  America.  It  was  the 
only  Juvenile  Court  that  had  absolute  jurisdiction — chancery 
and  common  law  criminal  jurisdiction — to  handle  the  case  of  a 
child  and  also  the  case  of  an  adult  who  violated  laws  for  the 
protection  of  a  child,  and  that  also  had  jurisdiction  of  the  '''adult 
juveniles;"  that  is,  those  between  16  and  21.  The  Court  is  in 
a  beautiful  position  to  build  one  of  the  greatest  works  and  per- 
form one  of  the  greatest  items  of  service  ever  performed  in 
the  cities,  if  it  could  only  get  the  equipment  and  help  necessary 
to  carry  it  on.  So  far  this  jurisdiction  is  only  co-equal  with  the 
Criminal  Court.  The  Judge  has  succeeded  in  getting  the  law, 
but  he  has  been  unable  to  get  the  needed  appropriations  and 
officers.  This  is  largely  because  of  his  fight  for  fundamental 
justice  against  the  Privilege  Barons  that  rob  the  cities  of  this 
country.  They  have  often  controlled  the  officers  who  supply 
appropriations  and  equipment  and  had  under  their  influence 
such  people  as  Whitehead,  Bates  and  others,  who  make  the 
most  vindictive  warfare  against  every  move  to  get  the  equip- 

71 


ment  necessary  to  do  this  work  for  the  protection  of  boys  and 
girls.  For  ten  years,  and  until  recently,  the  Juvenile  Court 
has  only  three  probation  officers.  We  secured  a  new  one  by 
getting  two  young  men  to  \vork  for  the  salary  of  the  one  offi- 
cer that  we  formerly  "employed.  During  nearly  all  of  that 
period  Denver  has  had  three  clog  catchers. 

Dog  Catchers  and  Probation  Officers. 

Indeed,  the  appropriation  for  the  dog  catchers  has  exceeded 
that  for  the  probation  officers.  In  this  ten  years  the  police  depart- 
ment has  more  than  doubled  in  numbers.  The  Juvenile  Court 
has  been  compelled  to  stand  still  because  it  dared  make  war 
against  the  causes  and  conditions  that  make  for  child  crime  and 
poverty  and  the  degradation  of  girls. 

But  the  Court  is  just  beginning  to  make  headway  against 
this  obstacle.  It  is  gradually  giving  way,  as  other  obstacles 
have  been  compelled  to  give  way,  and  within  another  year  it 
expects  to  have  the  equipment  it  has  needed.  As  pointed  out, 
the  defeat  of  the  adult  probation  law,  providing -such  officer, 
was  the  severest  blow  that  has  been  dealt  the  cause  of  boys  and 
girls  in  this  state  for  years.  But  that  will  be  overcome  by  an 
appeal  to  the  people,  if  a  fund  can  be  raised  for  the  purpose. 

The  Unmarried. 

In  dealing  with  the  sex  problem,  we  must  keep  in  mind 
that  \ve  face  the  staggering  and  appalling  fact  that  there  are 
seventeen  million  unmarried  people  in  the  United  States.  Nine 
million  unmarried  women  above  the  age  of  15;  8,102,000  un- 
married men,  age  20  and  over;  7,226,000  of  these  men  are  be- 
tween the  ages  of  20  and  44,  the  most  marriageable  age  for 
men;  500,000  of  them  between  45  and  54 — also  a  marriageable 
age  for  men.  Nearly  one-half  of  all  the  mar ria gable  people 
arc  unmarried.  That  there  is  something  dreadfully  wrong  in  this 
entire  sex  problem  goes  without  saying.  Is  civilization  a  con- 
spiracy against  nature?  It  is  not  due  entirely  to  economic 
conditions.  Such  conditions  are,  of  course,  partially  re- 
sponsible. But  there  is  something  terribly  wrong  with  our 
system  of  education.  We  see  it  constantly  as  we  face  this 
problem  in  a  court  like  the  Denver  Juvenile  Court,  that  was 

72 


the  first  Juvenile  Court  in  America  to  reach  anything  like  per- 
fection in  the  way  of  jurisdiction  and  work  that  would  reach 
such  cases.  We  have  had  many  occasions  to  talk  with  such 
men.  They  give  many  and  varied  reasons  for  not  getting 
married. 

It  is  an  interesting  thing  that  out  of  30  cases  shown  to 
have  been  dismissed  by  the  District  Attorney  in  the  Juvenile 
Court  13  of  them  were  bec'ause  the  parties  got  married.  This 
fact  is  an  excellent  illustration  of  the  need  of  administrative 
work  in  dealing  with  these  sex  cases.  If  we  had  the  equipment 
and  probation  officers  we  could  bring  about  many  happy  unions 
through  the  right  kind  of  talk  and  advice  that  otherwise  only 
add  to  the  curses  of  society.  Great  judgment  and  discrimina- 
tion is  necessarily  required  because,  as  pointed  out,  these  cases 
are  as  different  and  far  apart  as  petty  lying  and  assassination 
and  murder. 

Our  officers  may  suspect  improprieties  between  some 
young  girl  and  some  young  man.  That  girl  would  never  tell 
if  she  thought  it  simply  meant  vengeance,  violence  and  degra- 
dation. If  she  thought  it  meant  that  we  were  going  to  help 
and  not  hurt,  uplift  and  not  degrade,  she  would  in  many  cases 
confide  the  truth,  and  the  young  man  would  confess  the  truth, 
and  wise,  helpful  probation  officers  could  get  them  to  direct 
the  instincts  of  nature  in  proper  channels  and  under  the  rules, 
laws  and  safeguards  provided  by  society  for  the  protection  of 
the  child-  and  the  home. 

The  One  Big  Important  Thing. 

There  is  one  big  important  thing  that  is  necessary  in  do- 
ing this  work.  It  is  the  absolute  honesty  and  sincerity  of  the 
head  of  the  institution  created  to  carry  it  on.  Necessarily,  be- 
cause of  the  very  nature  of  the  work,  there  may  be  all  sorts 
of  opportunities  for  graft  and  corruption.  But  no  such  charge 
has  ever  been  made  against  the  Juvenile  Court.  When  the  pub- 
lic are  satisfied  that  they  have  an  incorruptible  head  to  this 
institution,  who  out  of  the  sincerity  of  his  heart  and  the  aver- 
age wisdom  of  his  head,  is  doing  the  very  best  he  can  with  a 
difficult  situation  in  which  all  society  is  involved,  and  for  crimes 

for  which  all  society  is  more  or  less  responsible,  it  Is  the  big 

73 


thing  that  the  public  can  expect.  It  must  necessarily  have  a 
c'ertain  amount  of  patience  and  charity  with  such  an  institution. 
So  long  as  it  is  confident  that  it  is  honest  and  incorruptible,  it 
may  depend  upon  it,  however  some  people  may  differ  about  the 
disposition  of  particular  cases,  it  is  the  very  best  that  the  pub- 
lic can  hope  for  in  such  a  work.  This  is  not  said  with  the  idea 
that  even  as  to  details  it  may  not  be  criticised  at  times,  in  order 
that  it  may  strengthen  its  effectiveness.  Neither  should  any 
court  object  to  any  honest  c'riticism  that  is  done  to  help  and 
not  to  hurt  its  work,  especially  when  it  comes  from  its  friends 
and  not  from  enemies  whom  it  knows  are  not  trying  to  help 
children,  but  are  trying  to  destroy  those  who  are  really  help- 
ing children. 

Great  Work  for  Girlhood. 

In  conclusion  it  is  only  fair  to  recall  some  of  the  work  that 
has  been  done  through  the  Juvenile  Court  of  Denver,  by  and 
with  the  help  of  some  of  its  noble  men  and  women.  It  is  im- 
possible to  go  into  details  of  each  of  these  items,  but  their  sug- 
gestion will  recall  to  the  minds  of  our  citizens  much  campaijgr- 
ing  of  the  court  in  the  legislature,  before  the  people,  at  mothers' 
meetings,  men's  brotherhoods,  and  through  pamphlet  and  cir- 
c'ular — all  done  or  issued  with  the  usual  drafts  upon  the  strength, 
health  and  purse  of  the  Juvenile  Judge  of  Denver.  This  state- 
ment is  made  without  any  desire  to  boast  or  to  claim  a  credit  that 
is  not  due;  but  because  of  the  infamous  charges  against  the 
court,  because  his  personal  life,  charities,  acts  and  conduct  have 
been  constantly  brought  into  question  and  misrepresented.  The 
law  of  self-defense  is  one  of  the  best  recognized  laws  in  every 
fight ;  and  while  we  need  no  defense  from  our  enemies  whom  we 
can  never  satisfy,  it  is  only  fair  to  recall  to  our  friends  and 
those  good  women  who  have  helped  us,  and  without  whose  help 
we  could  have  done  nothing,  the  following  items  of  work  that 
have  been  carried  on,  largely  through  the  Juvenile  Court  in  the 
last  twelve  years,  primarily  for  the  protection  of  the  girlhood 
of  Denver,  but  which,  in  part,  has  reached  out  to  protect  the 
girlhood  of  the  nation. 


74 


Twenty-Five    Items     of    Constructive    Work    for    Girls  by 

Juvenile  Court. 

Fight  against  the  fire  and  police  board  in  1901  and 
1902  for  better  protection  of  girls.  Their  public  exposure  and 
denunciation  for  protecting  dive  keepers,  in  whose  joints  they 
were  ruined.  Open  denunciation  of  one  former  district  attorney 
for  taking  poor  man  to  District  Court  and  sending  him  to  peni- 
tentiary and  showing  no  activity  or  prosecution  whatever  against 
althy  and  prominent  citizen  of  political  influence  for  offense 
against  same  girl.  In  none  of  these  cases  where  the  Judge  of  the 
Juvenile  Court  v-as  fighting  for  these  girls  did  the  creatures  of 
special  privilege  backing  the  Woman's  Protective  League  ever 
utter  one  word  against  them.  They  let  the  Judge  fight  these 
battles  alone. 

Trials  and  convictions  in  the  ''Cronin  Wine  Room 
Cas 

3.  Fight  in  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  to  sus- 
tain its  decisions  in  wine  room  law,   forbidding  girls  in  these 
brothels,  after  District  Judge   Palmer  had  held   it   unconstitu- 
tional.    Supreme  Court  sustained  Juvenile  Judge. 

4.  Trial   and   conviction   of   Pennington,    Ellis,    Holland, 
Decker  and  other  dive-keepers,   for  permitting  young  girls   in 
wine  rooms  and  their  sentence   to  and  serving  long  terms  in 
jail  and  the  break-up  of  the  worst  of  the  old  wine-room  evils. 
John  Phillips,  special  Juvenile  Court  police  officer,  is  entitled  to 
most  of  the  credit  for  this  work. 

Contributory  delinquency  law,  and  fight  for  same.  This 
law  has  been  copied  into  thirty  states  and  aided  in  the  protec- 
tion of  millions  of  girls. 

6.  Proposed  law  to  raise  age  for  protection  of  women  to 

21. 

7.  Law  providing  for  appointment  of  woman  police  officer. 
Ten  years  ago  first  provided  for  assistant  woman  judge 

in  girl  cases,  and  proposed  mandatory  law  for  same. 

9.  Got  a  special  appropriation  of  $1,500  for  employment 
of  two  women  for  special  work  for  girls. 

10.  When  appropriation  was  exhausted,  proposed  to  com- 
mittee  from  Woman's  Club  to  pay  one-half  salary  to   special 


woman  officer  to  look  after  girls'  cases,  if  Club  would  pay  other 
half. 

11.  For  time  paid  salary  to  colored  officer  to  look  after 
colored  girls. 

12.  Finding  that  many  such  cases  were  not  divulged  or 
prosecuted  because  of  publicity,  fought  for  six  years  for  law  to 
prevent  publicity. 

13.  Established  system  of  trials  that  prevented  much  of 
former  publicity,  and  helped  in  the  disclosure  and  prosecution 
of  many  cases  which  theretofore  were  not  detected  or  prosecuted 
at  all. 

14.  Proposed    constitutional    amendment    providing    for 
women  jurors  where  they  would  consent  to  serve. 

15.  Finding  that  the  plea  of  partial   insanity  was  often 
made  for  attacks  on  girls  and  frequently  a  legal  plea,  by  which 
men  "escaped,   proposed   law    for   the   detention    of   such   semi- 
insane  in  institutions  for  that  purpose. 

1 6.  Finding  that  severity  of  age  of  consent  law  was  its 
undoing,  provided  for  probation  in  certain  cases,  that  increased 
the  number  of  detections,  convictions  and  punishments   in   sex 
cases  over  200  per  cent  above  what  they  were  formerly. 

17.  Finding  that  the  troubles  of  many  girls  were  due  to 
broken  home  conditions  and  lack  of  care  by  mother,  proposed 
and  at  own  expense,  largely,  fought  for  Mothers'  Compensation 
Law  requiring  state,  in  proper  cases,  to  pay  mother  to  stay  at 
home  and  care  for  children. 

1 8.  Proposed  and  helped  secure  passage  of  law  requiring 
county  commissioners  to  put  up  fund  to  return  to  state  men  who 
desert  their  wives  and  children. 

19.  Proposed  and  helped  secure  passage  of  law  (vetoed  by 
the   Governor)    providing   for  paid  aclult   probation  officers  to 
make  this  law  effective,  for  the  protection  of  women,  and  espe- 
cially girls.     Thousands  of  women  and  children  are  now  suffer- 
ing in  this  state  because  the  powers  backing  the  Woman's  Pro- 
tective League  urged  the  Governor  to  veto  it. 

20.  Proposed  and  helped  secure  passage  of  law  requiring 
counties  to  maintain  work  houses,  for  the  incarceration  and  em- 
ployment of  wife  and  child  deserters. 

76 


roposed  and  established  a  system  in  proper  cases  for 

ring  confidence  of  girls  to  disclose  names  of  offenders,  on 

nise  of  probation  for  first  offense,  that  enabled  us  to  do 

something   where   before   absolutely   nothing  was   done.     This 

resulted  in  a  magnificent  work  for  girls,  such  as  was  never  done 

before  in  any  state  court,  to  our  knowledge. 

Established  a  system  of  work  with  children,  whereby 
a  number  of  cases  that  actually  existed,  but  under  the  old  sys- 
tem were  never  apprehended,  were  more  than  doubled.  With 
result  that  something  was  done  in  these  cases,  even  where  the 
jury  acquitted  them,  most  of  them  known  to  be  guilty,  though 
acquitted  \vere  thus  made  to  actually  serve  a  jail  sentence  and 
were  put  to  expense  of  trial.  Court  accused  by  members  of  bar 
defending  these  men  with  undue  severity  and  usurpation  of 
power  in  its  unusual  effort  to  thus  protect  girls. 

23.  Established    a    system    of    co-operation    between    tht 
police   department  and  the  Juvenile   Court,   whereby  a   special 
officer  was  appointed  to  patrol  the  rooming  house  districts,  wine 
rooms,  etc.,  with  result  that  the  number  of  cases  of  prosecutions 
of  dive  keepers,  whose  places  result  in  the  ruin  of  girls,  and 
detection,  arrests  and  conviction  in  sex  cases  were  more  than 
trebled    within    four   years.      Under   this    system   the   Juvenile 
Court  punished  more  such  dive  keepers  and  offenders  against 
girls  than  all  of  the  other  courts  in  the  history  of  the  law. 

24.  A  special  method  of  handling  sex  cases  in  the  schools  • 
without  publicity,  and  the  talks  to  parents,  and  educational  work 
that  has  been  quietly  done.     In  this  connection  many  such  cases 
could  be  described.     Their  handling  brought  tears  of  gratitude 
and  thanks  from  many  mothers  and  fathers  for  the  protection 
of  their  children  without  publicity. 

25.  Proposed,    drafted    and    helped    in   having   passed    a 
law  forbidding  the  district  attorney  to  dismiss  these  cases  with- 
out giving  his  reasons  in  writing  and  securing  the  consent  of 
the   court.      This   divided   the   responsibility.      Theretofore   the 
district  attorney  could  dismiss  such  cases  without  the  consent 
of  the  court.     The  law  recently  took  effect  (July,  1913).     Sen- 
ator   Affolter   is   entitled   to    great   credit    in   piloting   this   law 
through  the  legislature. 

77 


Approval  by  Officers  Who  Know. 

All  of  the  district  attorneys,  the  chiefs  of  police,  sheriffs, 
women  police  officers  and  investigators  and  the  leading  women 
of  Denver  familiar  with  the  work  approve  the  policy  and  work 
of  the  Juvenile  Court  in  the  sex  cases.  They  have  assured  the 
Judge  of  the  court  of  as  much  and  not  one  of  them  is  to  be 
found  in  the  Woman's  Protective  League. 

Approval  by  District  Attorneys. 

Under  date  of  March  28,  1913,  District  Attorney  Elliott 
wrote  to  the  Judge  of  the  Juvenile  Court,  respecting  these  cases, 
as  follows : 

"The  method  of  the  handling  of  the  cases,  and  the 
disposition  made  of  them  were,  in  my  judgment,  entirely 
correct.  We  felt  that  the  best  results  could  be  secured 
by  the  method  pursued.  I  have  had  no  reason  to  alter 
my  opinion." 

Under  date  of  April  23,  1913,  the  present  District  Attorney, 
Hon.  John  A.  Rush,  writes : 

"Your  policy  of  handling  sex  cases  in  your 
has  been  along  the  right  line,  and  one  that  has  resulted  in 
the  greatest  benefit  to  the  boys  and  girls  charged  with 

this  kind  of  crime." 

>* 

From  Deputy  District  Attorney  William  J.  L.  Crank, 
letter  dated  August   15,   1913: 

"When  I  read  the  charges,  I  took  it  as  a  joke  which 
someone  was  trying  to  perpetrate  in  order  to  gain  a 
little  notoriety.  But  later,  I  became  angered  at  the 
brazen  audacity  of  those  who  would  earnestly  publish 
to  the  world  such  statements  reflecting  upon  the  Juvenile 
Court  of  Denver.  Knowing  you,  as  I  have  personally 
for  the  past  twenty  years  in  this  city,  as  citizen,  lawyer 
and  Judge,  I  know  how  glaringly  ridiculous  these  charges 
are,  and  more  particularly  do  I  know  it  from  my  four 
years'  service  as  deputy  district  attorney  of  Denver,  dur- 
all  of  which  time  I  had  charge  of  all  the  criminal  cases 
coming  before  your  court.  I  had  a  chance  to  observe 

78 


and  study  the  work  of  the  Juvenile  Court  in  all  its 
phases.  During  that  time  how  highly  did  you  exemplify 
that  great  precept  of  'Letting  mercy  season  justice,'  and 
what  a  wholesome  effect  it  had;  but  I  also  rec'all  the 
many,  many  hard  fights  I  had  to  secure  the  conviction  of 
many  offenders  of  a  criminal  bent  of  mind;  and  I  now 
*  rejoice  to  think  how  speedily  you  meted  out  to  them  their 
punishment  regardless  of  their  position  or*  station  in  life. 
Many  times  I  have  said  in  public  and  private  utterances, 
if  all  the 'judges  on  the  bench  would  administer  the  law 
in  the  same  fearless  manner  as  you  administered  it  in 
the  Juvenile  Court,  there  would  be  no  whispering  criti- 
cisms of  the  judiciary.  You  need  feel  no  anxiety  about 
the  situation.  If  this  bird  of  ill-omen  (the  recall) 
should  ever  hatch,  the  people  of  Denver  will  wring  its 
neck  before  it  gets  pin  feathers." 

Under  date  of  March  27,   1913,  Deputy  District  Attorney 
rer  W.  Blood,  who  served  for  several  years  in  the  Juvenile 
Court,  writes : 

"Some  of  the  reasons  why  I  approved  of  your 
policy  that  had  my  co-operation  when  I  was  representing 
the  people  and  the  District  Attorney  in  your  court  was 
that  such  a  method  is  the  best  in  handling  such  cases. 
Under  it  we  were  able  to  secure  more  results.  It  seemed 
to  work  for  the  prevention  of  crime  more  than  any  other 
method  and  because  substantial  justice  was  more  gen- 
erally done.  In  cases  of  statutory  rape,  no  matter  how 
diligent  the  prosecutor,  it  is  almost  impossible  to  secure 
a  conviction  before  a  jury  where  the  only  evidence  is 
that  of  a  girl  whose  reputation  is  not  very  good,  as  is 
generally  the  case.  The  defendant  is  fortified  against 
this  evidence  by  his  own  denial,  the  presumption  of  in- 
nocence and  the  reasonable  doubt  doctrine.  To  try  many 
such  cases,  instead  of  working  for  the  prevention  of 
crime,  encourages  it  by  showing  the  offender  and  others 
that  he  can  commit  the  crime  with  impunity,  thus  making 
a  mockery  of  the  c'ourt  and  the  criminal  law.  At  the 
same  time  the  girl's  sin  and  shame  would  be  bared  to  the 

79 


world,  which  is  very  undesirable  when  nothing  is  secured 
by  it." 

Here  Mr.  Blood  enters  into  a  detailed  explanation  in  fur- 
nishing an  illustration  of  typical  cases  (types  of  which  are  al- 
ready referred  to  in  the  pamphlet),  as  showing  the  advantages 
of  the  administrative  work  of  the  Juvenile  Court  over  old 
methods.  He  concludes  with  this  statement: 

"When  I  say  that  under  such  a  system,  substantial 
justice  is  more  generally  done,  I  mean  justice  to  the 
girl  and  society,  as  well  as  to  the  offender.  The  great 
number  of  these  cases  occur  where  the  parties  are  not 
seriously  immoral,  but  rather  weak.  Our  records  show 
there  are  a  great  many  such  cases." 

Approval  by  Police  Officers. 

The  police  officers  are  in  entire  accord  with  the  unanimous 
verdict  of  the  district  attorneys  who  have  prosecuted  in  this 
court  for  the  past  twelve  years.  The  present  Chief  of  Police  01 
Denver,  Mr.  Felix  O'Neil,  was  Sheriff,  Warden  of  the  State 
Reformatory  at  Buena  Vista  and  Police  Officer  in  Denver  for 
twenty  years.  No  one  is  more  familiar  with  these  cases  and 
their  difficulties  from  the  standpoint  of  the  prosecution  and  the 
state.  The  Chief  has  written  another  letter,  repudiating  the 
Woman's  Protective  League  and  the  authors  of  their  circulars. 

In  one  of  them  Chief  O'Neil  writes : 

/ 

Chief  of  Police  O'Neil. 

"I  have  had  an  opportunity  for  over  ten  years  to 
know  of  the  work  being  done  by  the  Juvenile  Court  and 
its  offic'ers,  both  from  my  long  connection  with  the  Police 
Department  of  this  city  and  from  my  connection  with 
the  State  Reformatory  at  Buena  Vista,  also  from  inti- 
mate knowledge  of  the  duties  performed  by  Mr.  J.  S. 
Phillips,  a  special  officer  assigned  to  your  court  by  the 
Police  Department.  I  must  say  that  the  manner  in  which 
they  (the  sex  cases)  have  been  dealt  with  is  without  any 
doubt  the  most  effective  way  in  which  to  accomplish  any 
real  and  lasting  results.  Any  one  who  has  occupied  a 

80 


position  under  the  city  government,  as  I  have  for  years 
past,  which  calls  for  the  enforcement  of  the  law  and  the 
protection  of  the  community,  is  bound  to  know  something 
of  the  manner  in  which  lawbreakers  are  disposed  of,  and 
I  state,  without  fear  of  successful  contradiction,  that  the 
policy  of  the  Juvenile  Court  in  cases  involving  men  and 
girls  has  resulted  in  better  protection,  at  less  expense,  and 
with  more  permanent  and  lasting  good  than  has  been  done 
by  all  the  courts  put  together  for  the  last  twenty  years. 
Any  case  which  has  to  do  with  the  morality  of  a  girl  is 
fraught  with  many  difficulties  and  serious  obstacles  and 
requires  the  greatest  care  and  judgment.  And  it  has 
been  a  great  pleasure  to  know  that  the  Judge  of  the 
Juvenile  Court,  through  his  excellent  corps  of  officers, 
has  met  the  situation  in  a  way  that  has  been  productive 
of  great  good,  and  if  the  court  never  did  any  other  thing, 
the  results  of  this  one  phase  of  the  work  done  would  be 
of  untold  value." 

Chief  of  Police  Armstrong. 

xt  to  the  present  Chief  of  Police,  no  officer  has  served 
longer  in  recent  years  than  former  Sheriff  and  former  Chief  of 
Police  Hamilton  Armstrong,  who  was  only  recently  defeated 
for  Commissionerfof  Public  Safety  by  the  narrow  margin  of 
less  than  a  hundred  votes.  Mr.  Armstrong  has  been  sheriff  of 
Denver,  and  was  for  years  Chief  of  Police  under  Mayor  Robert 
\V.  Speer.  Under  recent  date,  in  answer  to  the  attacks  being 
made  upon  the  court,  former  Chief  Armstrong  states  over  his 
own  signature : 

"I  wish  to  add  my  hearty  approval  to  the  manner 
in  which  such  cases  have  been  handled  by  the  officers  of 
your  court,  as  well  as  yourself.  Furthermore,  I  am  only 
too  glad  to  make  a  statement  regarding  the  work  of  your 
court  in  these  matters  while  I  was  Chief  of  Police.  From 
my  experience  in  cases  of  this  kind,  I  believe  the  most 
effective  work  has  been  done  in  exceptional  cases  by 
placing  the  accused  on  probation  under  suspended  sen- 
tence (to  be  enforced  if  violated)  than  by  going  to  trial 

before  a  jury,  which  will  almost  invariably  discharge  the 

81 


prisoner  for  a  crime  of  this  kind,  because  it  is  exceed- 
ingly difficult  to  secure  absolute  evidence  and  make  it 
hold  with  a  jury.  This  is  further  augmented  by  the  law 
of  reasonable  doubt,  which  declares  that  a  jury  must, 
beyond  all  doubt,  find  that  the  accused  is  guilty,  and  it 
can  readily  be  seen  how  difficult  it  is  to  make  it  positive 
when  the  Defendant  has  emphatically  denied  such  crime. 
If  the  defendant  is  discharged,  it  leaves  the  court  with 
no  jurisdiction  whatever  to  look  after  the  accused,  al- 
though he  may  have  been  guilty.  Under  the  present 
method  of  sentencing  a  number  of  these  prisoners  to  the 
jail  for  a  term  and  then  placing  them  on  probation,  it 
has  been  possible  for  your  officers  to  keep  watch  of  these 
men.  With  reference  to  adult  offenders,  I  know  from 
personal  observation  in  watching  the  work  of  your  court 
that  in  proper  cases  it  has  been  your  policy  to  impose 
long  sentences  whenever  a  conviction  has  been  secured." 

Statement  by  Sheriff  Danny  Sullivan. 

"As  Sheriff  of  Denver  County  during  1912  and 
1913,  I  attended  a  number  of  trials  of  sex  cases  in  judge 
Lindsey's  Court.  I  have  made  arrests  in  such  cases  and 
personally  looked  after  the  prosecution  of  some  of  the 
offenders  against  girls.  I  am  satisfied  that  Judge  Lind- 
sey's methods  in  handling  these  cases  have  been  a  won- 
derful improvement  over  the  old  methods  of  the  Criminal 
Court  system.  I  know  that  he  has  imposed  heavy  sen- 
tences in  proper  cases  and' wisely  applied  the  saving  grace 
of  probation  in  other  cases.  I  have  been  impressed  with 
some  of  the  difficulties  that  he  has  c'on fronted  and  over- 
come. I  have  seen  girls  brought  into  court  who,  on  first 
appearance  would  make  a  free  and  voluntary  statement 
implicating  men,  and  then  when  the  accused  would  be 
brought  to  trial  they  would  repudiate  their  former  state- 
ment, making  conviction  very  difficult,  if  not  impossible. 
The  immorality  and  wantonness  of  some  of  these  young 
girls  has  surprised  me  beyond  measure.  Those  not  in 
active  attendance  on  the  court  would  hardly  believe  it. 
I  consider  the  problem  with"  which  Judge  Lindsey  is 

82 


wrestling,  and  in  which  he  has  done  so  much  good,  as 
one  of  the  greatest  that  we  face  in  the  cities.  The  Juve- 
nile Court  of  Denver  is  entitled  to  the  support  of  the 
people  in  the  great  good  it  has  accomplished  under  Judge 
Lindsey,  on  the  protection  of  Denver's  girls." 

By  George  Creel,  Recently  Police  Commissioner. 

George  Creel,  recently  Police  Commissioner  states: 

Police  Commissioner  of  Denver  I  had  an  ex- 
ceptional opportunity  to  know-  of  the  sex  cases  under  the 
age  of  consent  law  in  Colorado.  I  have  sat  with  Judge 
Lindsey  in  his  c'ourt  during  the  trial  and  disposition  of 
such  cases.  His  handling  of  the  cases  has  been  wise  and 
helpful,  both  from  the  standpoint  of  the  protection  of 
society  and  the  child,  and  in  proper  cases  the  redemption 
of  the  individual.  As  shown  by  the  records,  the  Juvenile 
Court  has  secured  an  increase  of  efficiency  all  along  the 
line  in  these  cases  of  from  70  to  300  per  c'ent.  I  haven't 
the  slightest  doubt  about  these  results,  as  shown  by  the 
tables  prepared  by  the  Juvenile  Court.  It  squares  with 
my  own  experience  and  knowledge  of  these  cases  under 
the  old  system  that  Judge  Lindsey  has  done  so  much  to 
correct.  It  was  a  God-send  to  Denver  to  have  a  Juvenile 
Court  and  a  man  like  Judge  Lindsey  to  build  up  a  con- 
structive, administrative  work  that  has  done  more  to  pro- 
tect the  girls  of  Denver  than  all  other  agencies  combined 
in  the  history  of  the  city.  His  work  has  met  with  the 
hearty  approval  and  commendation  of  the  Polic'e  Depart- 
ment and  of  all  good  citizens  in  Denver." 

Commissioner  of  Public  Safety  and  Police  Inspector  DeLue. 

Approval  of  Denver's  Commissioner  of  Safety,  Alexander 
>et,  and  Leonard  DeLue,  Inspector  of  Police: 
Mr.    Alexander  Nisbet,   recently  elected   Commissioner   of 
Public   Safety   for  Denver,   and   Leonard   DeLue,   recently   ap- 
pointed Inspector  of  Police,  have  both  had  long  experience  in 
the  detective,  police  and  sheriff's  office  of  Denver.     They  have 
.orized  this  statement: 

83 


"\Ve  heartily  approve  the  method  of  the  Juvenile 
Court  in  handling  the  sex  cases,  that  have  furnished  the 
subject  of  recent  attacks  upon  the  court.  The  ordinary 
individual  who  has  had  no  police  experience,  has  very 
little  conception  of  the  difficulties  involved  in  this  prob- 
lem. The  record  of  the  Juvenile  Court  in  detections, 
convictions  and  something  done  where  little  was  done 
before,  is  so  far  superior  to  what  was  accomplished  before 
Judge  Lindsey  came  to  the  Juvenile  Court  that  any  sort 
of  comparison  should  convince  the  fair-minded  of  the 
effectiveness  of  the  methods  of  the  Juvenile  Court  in  the 
protection  of  girls.  It  has  given  better  protection  to  girls 
in  these  cases  than  was  ever  afforded  before  in  this  com- 
munity, and  the  results  have  been  very  satisfactory." 

Approval  by  Women  Officers  Who  Know. 

The  undersigned  women  of  Denver,  who,  during  some  part 
of  the  past  year,  have  held  the  positions  set  opposite  their  names, 
thereby  bringing  them  in  constant  touch  with  the  sex  problem 
in  Denver  and  especially  the  protection  of  its  girls,  gladly  make 
the  following  statement : 

"We  have  the  utmost  confidence  in  the  Juvenile 
Court  of  Denver  and  Judge  Lindsey.  We  are  familiar 
with  its  methods  of  handling  sex  cases  that  arise  under 
the  extreme  and  difficult  age  of  consent  laws  existing  in 
Colorado.  Judge  Lindsey  has  met  the  problem  as  was 
never  met  before,  with  results  most  satisfactory,  espe- 
cially as  compared  with  past  methods.  We  haven't  the 
slightest  doubt,  as  shown  by  the  official  records,  that  his 
work  for  girls  has  greatly  increased  the  efficiency  of  the 
work  as  regards  detection,  prosecutions  and  convictions 
in  such  cases.  We  heartily  believe  in  his  ideas  concern- 
ing probation  in  a  c'ertain  class  of  these  cases.  We  know 
that  he  has  imposed  heavy  penalties  in  other  cases  where 
probation  was  not  called  for.  We  heartily  believe  in  his 
plan  of  constructive  and  administrative  work  in  these 
cases.  We  believe  it  has  done  more  for  the  protection 

84 


of  the  girls  of  Denver  than  has  been  done  through  all  the 
other  courts  in  the  history  of  the  law. 

JOSEPHINE  A.  ROCHE, 

Recent  appointee   of  Mayor  Arnold   and 
the  Fire  and  Police  Board  as  Inspector 
of  Public  Amusements  in  Denver. 
MRS.  HELEN  C.  COTTON, 

For    bast    thirteen   years   and    at    present 
Superintendent  of  the  Crittenden  Home 
for  Girls  in  Denver. 
MRS.  A.  M.  DONALDSON, 

President  of  Crittenden  Home  for  Girls  iu 

Denver. 
MARY  LEVIN, 

Inspector  for  the  Denver  Morals  Commis- 
sion. 
MARGARET  WALKER, 

For  five  years  matron  of  the  County  Jail 
and   during   time  when  Juvenile   Court 
work  was  started. 
MILDRED  L.  SCHROEDER, 

Special   Detective   in   leading   department 
stores  in  Denver  for  seven  years. 


85 


EXAGGERATED    CHARGES     OF     THE    JUDGE'S     ABSENCES. 

lit  is  well  known  in  Denver  that,  after  the  payment  of  thousands 
of  dollars  to  the  best  detectives  that  Boss  Evans  could  hire,  to  "get 
something  on  Lindsey,"  the  old  "Gang"  have  ever  been  reduced  to 
the  last  extremity  of  charging  this  infamous  falsehood,  circulated  with 
the  circulars  of  the  Woman's  Protective  League: 

"The  campaign  against  him  would  have  to  be  waged  against 
him  during  his  absence  from  Denver  for  the  reason  that  for 
the  past  six  years  the  'little  Judge'  has  not  been  in  Denver  to 
exceed  sixty  days  in  any  one  year,  and  during  the  present  year 
he  has  not  been  in  Denver  since  February  1st,  but  at  the  same 
time  draws  $4,000  per^  year  from  the  taxpayers  and  Denver 
County  is  obliged  to  pay  the  expense  of  another  judge  to  per- 
form the  duties  which  Lindsey  is  paid  to  perform  while  the 
'little  Judge'  is  delivering  lectures  throughout  the  country." 

Only  those  who  know  the  character  of  the  authors  of  the  Woman's 
Protective  League  could  believe  that  they  are  capable  of  such  utter 
depravity  and  disregard  for  the  truth,  as  such  statements  convict 
them.  It  is  of  a  piece  with  all  of  their  other  statements. 

THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  THE  JUDGE'S  ABSENCES. 

For  the  thirteen  years  that  the  Judge  has  been  on  the  bench  in 
Denver  his  absences  have  not  exceeded,  on  an  average,  those  ordinar- 
ily taken  by  judges  who  go  on  their  vacations.  There  have  been  a 
few  years  when,  because  of  his  public  work  in  the  nation  in  carrying 
from  Denver,  Colorado's  gospel  of  child  saving,  justice  and  humanity, 
his  absences  have  exceeded  that  time.  But  they  have  always  been 
with  the  approval  of  the  people.  The  longest  period  of  such  absences 
was  in  1908.  That  was  made  an  issue  in  the  election.  It  was  again 
made  an  issue  in  the  two  elections  in  1912.  In  each  instance  the 
Judge  wras  elected  by  ever  increasing  majorities.  No  such  overwhelm- 
ing approval  was  ever  given  a  candidate  in  the  history  of  contested 
elections  in  Denver.  His  absences  are  thus  a  part  of  his  work  and  his 
contract  with  the  people,  and  they  have  not  been  so  excessive  as  to 
provoke  the  serious  criticism  of  any  one  but  his  bitter  enemies. 

While  the  Judge  was  in  the  County  Court  he  did  the  work  that  is 
now  being  done  by  four  judges  in  Denver.  He  had  the  Juvenile  Court 
and  the  County  Court.  He  never  had  more  than  one  judge  to  assist 
him  in  that  work  in  the  County  Court.  It  was  larger  then,  perhaps, 
it  is  at  the  present  time,  because  he  had  a  criminal  docket  and  the 
children's  docket.  During  one  year  of  that  period  he  held  over  one 
hundred  night  sessions.  Since  he  has  been  exclusively  in  the  Juvenile 
Court  he  very  seldom  leaves  his  chambers  before  six  and  six-thirty 
in  the  evening.  He  has  spent  an  average  of  two  or  three  nights  a 
week  in  the  work  growing  out  of  the  court.  This  extra  time  beyond 
that  given  or  expected  to  be  given  by  judges  of  other  courts,  without 
any  pay  or  compensation  from  the  people,  has  more  than  exceeded 
all  of  his  absences. 

A    FAIR    INVESTIGATION    BY    REV.    J.   A.    DEAN. 

The  Judge  had  no  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Dean  when  he  came  to 
this  Court  to  go  through  the  records  to  get  material  for  his  thesis. 
He  tells  us  he  was  interested  in  the  "stock"  criticisms  of  the  enemies 
of  the  Court,  that  the  "Judge  was  away  most  of  the  time."  Mr.  Dean 
carefully  investigated  the  records  as  to  this  charge.  As  to  this  inves- 
tigation let  it  be  said  that  there  are  365  days  in  the  year,  from  which 
we  must  deduct  65  days  for  Sundays  and  holidays,  and  then  there  is  the 
vacation  period  in  June,  July  and  August,  when  the  courts  may  be  on 
their  vacations,  which  is  90  days.  It  must  also  be  remembered  that 


the  Court,  to  save  expense,  only  holds  a  regular  court,  as  shown  by  the 
records,  when  it  is  necessary  to  dispose  of  cases.  Much  of  the  work 
of  the  Juvenile  Court  is  done  in  chambers  and  at  odd  times  when  court 
is  not  in  session  at  all.  The  presence  of  the  Judge  at  the  time  of  this 
work  would  not  show  in  the  ordinary  court  minutes  as  taken  down 
by  the  Clerk  only  when  Court  convenes  with  the  Judge  on  the  bench. 
It  is  only  fair  to  state  that  there  are  very  few  District  Judges  in  this 
state  who  actually  spend  more  than  fifty  per  cent  of  the  court  days  in 
the  year  in  court.  Such  a  record  is  considered  a  very  good  record. 
Yet  Mr.  Dean  reports  that  Judge  Lindsey  wras  on  the  bench  more  than 
two-thirds  of  the  possible  court  days  in  the  year. 

Denver,  Colorado,  October  1st,  1913. 
Hon.  Ben  B.  Lindsey,  Judge  Juvenile   Court,   Denver,   Colorado. 

Dear  Sir:  I  first  came  to  the  Juvenile  Court  of  Denver  as  a  s'u- 
dent  of  social  problems  in  the  spring  of  1911.  I  had  no  personal  ac- 
quaintance with  you  at  that  time,  but  having  been  a  pastor  for  several 
years  and  interested  in  the  problem  of  juvenile  delinquency,  I  decided 
to  write  a  thesis  on  the  Juvenile  Court  of  Denver  that  I  might  obtain 
the  best  first-hand  information  on  that  subject.  By  your  courtesy  I  was 
given  free  access  to  all  the  Juvenile  Court  records.  I  had  often  heard 
of  the  stock  objections  against  your  being  away  so  much  from  your  court 
work.  On  my  own  initiative  I  have  examined  the  court  records  from 
July  1,  1907,  when  the  Juvenile  Court  was  separated  from  the  County 
Court,  to  December  31st,  1912,  a  period  of  five  and  one-half  years.  I 
have  found  that  you  were  on  the  bench  68.6  per  cent  of  all  the  court 
days  during  that  period,  not  including  the  six  months  you  were  absent, 
from  January  to  June,  1908,  by  leave  of  the  Board  of  County  Commis- 
sioners. This  percentage  is  forcibly  corroborated  by  the  tabulation  of 
cases  in  a  recent  circular  by  the  Woman's  Protective  League,  which 
shows  you  were  the  Judge  in  140  out  of  146  sex  cases  from  September, 
1909,  to  February,  1913.  which  proves  the  falsity  of  their  reckless  as- 
sertions that  you  have  "not  been  in  Denver  to  exceed  sixty  days  in  any 
one  year.'' 

APPOINTED    BY    THE    CHURCH. 

On  July  1st,  1912.  at  your  request.  I  became  a  probation  officer  in 
the  Juvenile  Court,  and  twice  during  the  fifteen  months  since  that  time 
Bishop  F.  J.  McConnell,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church,  has  ap- 
pointed me  to  the  position  of  probation  officer,  the  Colorado  Annual 
Conference,  of  which  I  am  a  member,  concurring.  After  having  collated 
and  tabulated  many  facts  and  figures  from  the  Juvenile  Court  and 
other  records,  covering  the  period  from  1903  to  1912,  I  have  been  amazed 
at  the  quantity  and  quality  of  work  done  by  the  Court.  During  the  five 
calendar  years,  from  1908  to  1912,  the  only  complete  years  of  the  court's 
existence,  separate  from  the  County  Court,  5,966  children  in  delinquent 
cases*;  1,262  children  in  dependency  cases;  70  children  given  permits 
under  the  child  labor  law  of  1911;  770  persons  in  adult  cases;  a  total 
of  at  least  8,075  persons  were  handled  by  the  Court  or  its  officers. 

Furthermore,  during  the  same  period  the  Juvenile  Court  has  cost 
the  city  and  county  of  Denver  only  $87,738. 00,t  or  an  average  of  $10.86 
for  each  person  handled.  When  one  considers  that  this  includes  the 
Criminal  Court  division  with  the  expense  of  jury  trials,  district  attor- 
neys, sheriff's  service,  in  addition  to  the  training  and  visiting  of  over 

*The  number  of  delinquent  cases  includes  all  of  the  cases  complained 
against.  While  many  of  these  cases  were  rather  due  to  surplus  energy  and 
love  of  fun  and  adventure  of  the  average  boy,  they  always  required  investiga- 
tion, for  the  complaints  had  been  filed  as  though 'they  had  been  really  delin- 
quent cases. 

fit  is  interesting  to  note  that  during  the  same  five  years,  the  cost  of  the 
District   Court — trying  cases    that    mostly   involve    property — was   over   $7" 
The    cost    of   the   County   Couyt — also    trying    cases    involving    property — things 
rather   than   human  beings — was   over    $200,000. 

87 


1,500  probationers,  clerk  hire,  office  supplies,  and  the  time-  required  for 
the  consideration  and  investigation  of  8,075  persons  handled,  it  is  a 
wonder  that  so  much  has  been  done  by  a  small,  overworked  force  with 
so  small  an  appropriation  and  with  so  little  expense.  Where  can  there 
be  any  room  for  anything  but  praise  for  the  Juvenile  Court  with  such 
a  record?  In  recent  years  there  has  been  a  remarkable  change  in  the 
attitude  of  jurists,  educators  and  social  workers  towards  the  old  meth- 
ods of  punishing  criminals,  and  great  value  is  now  placed  upon  proba- 
tion, or  a  chance  to  make  good  under  proper  guidance.  This  new  meth- 
od is  applied  in  some  cases  to  those  found  guilty  of  sex  crimes,  and  I  am 
confident  after  comparing  records  of  Denver's  Juvenile  and  Criminal  Courts 
that  the  methods  of  probationary  oversight  in  certain  cases,  with  a  suffi- 
cient number  of  officers  in  charge,  is  far  better  than  immediate  peniten- 
tiary confinement  without  a  chance  to  make  good,  though  some  mistakes 
might  occur.  Any  person  who  is  trying,  as  you  have  done,  to  get  the 
most  out  of  this  more  humane  and  Christian  method,  should  be  com- 
mended and  not  condemned  or  stigmatized  as  one  in  league  with  brutes 
to  destroy  the  purity  of  childhood.  Having  worked  with  children  for 
several  years,  as  a  student  of  their  problem  and  welfare,  I  am  gratified 
and  honored  by  being  able  to  study  in  and  be  a  part  of  the  Juvenile 
Court  of  Denver  and  co-operate  with  you  as  its  Judge  for  the  welfare 
of  the  children  of  Denver. 

Sincerely   yours, 

JESSE    A.    DEAN. 

THE    JUDGE'S    WORK    IN    1908. 

A  further  comment  in  connection  with  Mr.  Dean's  letter  is  that  he 
refers  to  the  longest  absence  of  the  Judge  in  1908.  That  was  by  leave 
of  the  Board  of  County  Commissioners.  He  received  absolutely  no  sal- 
ary from  the  county  during  his  absence.  He  spent  considerable  time 
in  the  South,  at  the  invitation  of  Miss  Sophie  Wright,  of  New  Orleans. 
He  visited  various  states,  delivering  lectures  against  child  labor  and 
against  the  terrible  jail  conditions  then  existing  in  many  of  the  South- 
ern states,  and  which  since  that  time  have  been  largely  corrected. 
Leading  editorial*,  in  Southern  papers  credited  many  of  the  changes 
that  came,  both  as  to  child  labor  laws  and  jail  conditions,  to  the  work 
done  during  that  period  by  the  Judge  of  the  Juvenile  Court  of  Denver. 
The  matter  was  made,  in  part,  an  issue  in  the  campaign  of  November. 
1908,  when  the  Judge  ran  independent,  and  when  his  work  and  leave 
of  absence  given  by  the  Board  of  County  Commissioners  met  with  the 
overwhelming  approval  of  the  people.  He  was  elected  by  the  largest 
plurality  received  by  any  candidate  under  handicaps  and  difficulties 
never  before  faced  and  overcome  in  any  election  in  Denver.  The  Judge 
was  viciously  opposed  by  both  the  old  party  machines,  the  bosses  and 
the  public  service  corporations  in  league  with  the  dive  element — a  com- 
bination he  had  consistently  and  persistently  fought. 

A     WELL-UNDERSTOOD     CUSTOM. 

It  has  been  the  custom  for  years  for  the  Judge  of  the  Juvenile 
Court  to  have  a  lecture  period  in  the  spring  and  the  fall,  and  deliver 
some  Chatauqua  lectures  in  the  summer  months.  The  spring  and  fall 
are  selected  because  it  carries  him  to  universities,  colleges,  teachers' 
institutes,  woman's  clubs  and  other  avenues  of  spreading  a  message 
and  a  gospel  that  cannot  be  reached  at  other  seasons  of  the  year. 
This  has  been  well  known  and  approved  by  the  people  of  Denver  at 
election  after  election,  when  it  was  made  an  issue  against  the  Judge 
by  his  enemies,  and  when  the  people  increased  his  majorities.  During 
his  absences  the  court  runs  right  on  with  the  able  assistant  judge. 

THE    JUDGE'S    ILLNESS    IN    1913. 

The  Judge  left  Denver  on  the  23rd  of  March,  1913,  then  in  a  de- 
pleted state  of  health,  in  an  effort  to  deliver  ten  or  twelve  addresses 

88 


thus  planned  for  this  spring  lecture  period.  '  '  He"  also  visited '  Mr. 
Thomas  A.  Edison  in  connection  with  some  plans  for  the  new  education 
in  which  he  is  interested;  also  to  make  some  investigations  for  the 
protection  of  a  class  of  children  against  child  labor  that  the  present 
child  labor  laws  do  not  sufficiently  reach.  On  this  trip  he  was  stricken 
with  illness,  and  on  the  verge  of  a  nervous  breakdown  he  stopped  at 
Battle  Creek,  Michigan,  on  the  invitation  of  Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg,  and  in 
order  to  give  proper  attention  to  his  physical  condition.  He  has  been 
furnished  with  certificates  from  his  physicians  at  the  Battle  Creek 
Sanitarium,  giving  a  detailed  account  of  his  illness.  In  these  certifi- 
cates, the  doctors  state: 

"An  examination  revealed  him  to  be  suffering  from  a  very 
much  rundown  physical  condition.  An  operation  (that  followed) 
was  of  a  very  painful  character,  and  confined  him  to  the  hos- 
pital ward  for  a  week.*  Yet,  at  the  same  time,  it  was  not  in 
the  least  dangerous  nor  in  any  manner  whatsoever  to  jeopar- 
dize his  life.  The  Judge  felt  he  could  not  remain  here  for  a 
sufficient  length  of  time  to  be  cured,  and  insisted  upon  leaving 
several  times  before  he  did,  and  we  urged  him  to  remain  longer 
because  we  appreciated  his  need  for  further  treatment.  I  was 
personally  in  touch  with  his  condition  from  May  9th  up  to 
Sept.  5th,  and  can  state  without  any  exceptions  whatever  that 
he  was  not  only  justified  in  being  away  from  Denver  for  rest 
and  treatment,  but  his  physical  condition  demanded  it.  From 
his  history,  we  learn  that  he  suffers  terribly  from  asthma  and 
hay  fever  while  in  Denver  in  the  summer  months,  and  his  ab- 
sence at  that  time  was  justifiable  in  order  to  obviate  this  diffi- 
culty." 

The  Judge's  family  physicians,  as  well  as  several  specialists  on 
asthma  troubles,  have  advised  him  time  and  again  to  stay  out  of  Den- 
ver during  the  asthma  season,  in  order  to  keep  his  strength  and 
health  for  the  fall  and  winter's  work.  It,  therefore,  follows  that  for 
the  year  1913  the  absence  of  the  Judge  for  five  months  and  twelve 
days  was,  as  to  over  four  months  of  the  entire  period,  occasioned  by 
his  breakdown  and  illness.  During  the  same  period  one  of  the  Dis- 
trict Judges  was  compelled  to  be  absent  through  illness  for  some  six 
months.  We  are  informed  that  even  Whitehead,  the  bitter  enemy  of 
the  court,  during  the  past  year,  has  been  away  from  his  office  from 
four  to  six  months  on  account  of  illness,  and  that  one  of  his  secre- 
taries during  several  years  past  has  been  away  a  large  part  of  the 
time.  Some  of  the  Supreme  Judges  are  said  to  have  been  away  on 
account  of  illness  from  four  to  nine  months  during  recent  times.  It 
never  occasioned  the  slightest  criticism.  Of  course  there  is  a  reason. 

EXPENSES    OF    JUDGE    IN    RUNNING    AN    INSTITUTION    LIKE    THE 
JUVENILE    COURT    OF    DENVER 

The  public  have  little  conception  of  the  expenses  that  come  to  a 
man  doing  such  a  public  work,  not  only  for  Denver,  but  participating 
in  a  similar  work  for  the  Nation  and  the  world.  It  is  more  than  a 
court.  It  is  a  big  institution.  It  is  necessarily  a  personal  work.  We 
are  told  that  Miss  Addams  of  Hull  House,  or  Booker  Washington  of 
Tuskagee,  in  answering  the  demands  of  their  work,  are  sometimes 
away  from  four  to  six  months  a  year.  There  is  an  immense  corres- 
pondence created  by  the  very  work  the  Court  has  accomplished.  There 
is  the  necessity  for  frequent  printing  of  pamphlets,  and  the  circulation 
of  literature.  State  officials  send  such  letters  to  us  to  answer  and 
the  Judge,  and  not  the  State,  has  paid  thousands  of  dollars  for  such 
literature..  There  are  all  sorts  of  demands  from  charity  and  philan- 

*He  was  also  confined  to  his  bed  with  fever  for  another  week. 

89 


thropy  upon  his  purse  that  do  not  come  to  other  officeholders  or  cit- 
izens. Some  of  them  are  impossible  to  resist.  The  Judge  has  frankly 
stated  to  the  people,  from  the  platform,  time  and  again,  and  in  printed 
pamphlets  sent  out  from  the  court,  that  it  was  absolutely  necessary 
if  he  was  to  carry  on  this  work  that  he  have  these  periods  of  absence, 
not  only  to  popularize  and  spread  the  cause  that  he  stands  for,  but 
to  get  the  needed  funds  to  carry  on  the  work  that  has  been  especially 
expensive  because  of  his  attacks  against  the  corrupt  political  influences 
seeking  special  privileges  in  Colorado.  'It  has  forced  him  into  addi- 
tional and  expensive  campaigns  that,  with  other  expenses  necessitated  by 
the  work  of  the  court,  has  cost  him  approximately  $25,000.  When  he  is 
away  he  always  pays  the  Judge  who  assists  him  in  the  court.  In  this 
way  the  work  goes  right  on  under  his  direction,  and  there  has  been  no 
just  complaint  from  litigants  or  others.  This  assistant  judge  is  helped 
by  the  able  trained  assistants  in  the  court.  Citizens  of  Denver  frequently 
tell  us  that  they  would  a  good  deal  rather  have  this  arrangement  than  to 
have  this  important  work  in  some  unknown  and  untried  hands,  as  it 
would  be  if  thrown  like  a  bone  among  the  politicians  scrambling  "for  a 
job." 

His  absences  then,  considering  his  work  (1)  have  not  been  exces- 
sive, have  (2)  never  been  at  the  expense  of  the  taxpayers,  and  to 
carry  on  a  work  that  has  netted  millions  of  dollars  in  savings  to  tax- 
payers; (3)  and  to  help  save  millions  of  children  throughout  the  world. 

In  the  east,  during  July  and  August,  he  is  absolutely  free  from 
attacks  of  asthma.  Rather  than  rest  during  this  time,  to  get  the  funds 
to  carry  on  the  work  and  to  pay  bills  that  have  accumulated  largely 
as  a  result  of  his  campaigns  for  women  and  children,  the  drafting  of 
bills  and  the  issuing  of  thousands  of  circulars  and  letters  in  their  be- 
half, he  delivered  a  great  many  lectures  during  July  and  August  to 
over  100,000  people  in  the  eastern  states  on  his  favorite  topics,  Child 
Welfare.  Playgrounds,  Boy  Scouts,  Juvenile  Courts,  the  Home,  Parents, 
School,  Church,  Equal  Suffrage,  Social  and  Industrial  Justice  and  their 
part  in  the  cause  of  childhood.  He  has  absolutely  no  apologies  what- 
ever for  that  work.  It  has  been  approved  time  and  again  by  the  peo- 
ple of  Denver,  who  employ  him.  No  one  but  his  bitter  vindictive 
enemies  are  using  it  in  the  way  that  it  has  been  used  throughout  the 
country. 

150    ITEMS    CONSTRUCTIVE    LAWS    AND    WORK. 

In  judging  the  record  of  a  court,  especially  when  it  is  attacked 
and  false  rumors  circulated  about  its  recall,  it  is  perhaps  excusable 
to  call  attention  to  some  items  on  the  credit  side  of  its  ledger.  These 
items  are  only  a  part  of  those  that  could  be  cited  as  showing  the 
services  and  value  given  the  people  that  was  not  undertaken  in  the 
contract  of  the  Judge,  but  has  been  done  in  addition  to  his  regular 
work  for  which  he  is  paid.  The  items  mentioned  here  are  primarily 
those  for  which  he  has  not  been  paid  by  the  people,  except  with  their 
generous  approval. 

1.  Over  150  items  of  laws  and  constructive  work,  as  carefully  itemized 
and  detailed  in  a  pamphlet  issued  by  the  Christian  Citizenship  Union  in  the 
May  campaign  of  1912  at  the  emotions  in  Denver.  These  items  consist  of 
many  original  laws,  like  the  Contributory  Delinquency  law— the  first  of  its 
kind;  the  law  exempting  to  orphan  children  certain  sums  of  an  estate— the 
first  of  its  kind;  and  many  others.  It  also  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that 
many  of  these  laws  have  been  copied  around  the  world;  that  they  have  not 
only  helped  millions  of  children  in  this  country,  but  millions  of  children  in 
foreign  countries.  This  work  of  the  Court  is  shown  to  have  been  commended 
in  the  message  of  a  former  President  of  the  United  States,  by  two  distin- 
guished Secretaries  of  State  in  the  President's  Cabinet;  made  the  subject  of 
«  special  recommendation  to  Congress  by  former  Secretary  of  State,  Hon. 
John  Hay;  that  the  Court  has  been  appealed  to  by  another  Secretary  of  State, 
Hon.  Philander  C.  Knox,  to  assist  the  State  Department  in  advising  foreign 
governments  as  to  children's  courts  and  work  for  children.  There  are  also 
grateful  acknowledgments  from  the  former  Home  Secretary  of  England,  for 
assistance  in  the  preparation  of  the  Children's  Bill  and  the  Probation  Laws 

90 


'ngland,  that  are  now  administering  to  the  protection  of  thousands  of 
and  girls.  There  are  also  grateful  acknowledgments  from  the  represen- 
es  of  reign  countries.  All  of  this  is  a  work  that  Denver  has 

•••    to    the    world    through    the    Juvenile    Court    that    Denver 
Denver  has   backed  the  Judge   in  his   necessary  absences   tnat 
••ly     been     responsible     for     popu'arizing   and    spreading    this    gospel 
'ld   the  world  and  advancing  the  cause  of  humanity  and  justice. 

MILLIONS  OF  DOLLARS  SAVED  TO  TAXPAYERS. 

Among  the  savings  in  dollars  and  cents    to    the    taxpayers  in  Den- 
J.one,  to  say  nothing  of  the  taxpayers  of  other  states,  in  the    de- 
crease of  the  awful  cost  of  crime,  the  following  items  may  be  noted: 

•olition    of   fee    system   and   criminal    court   procedure    in    pro- 
ution   of   children.      Governor  Peabody,    in    message   to   legis- 
lature i:  imated  saving  to  state  of  over  $88,000.00  in  its 

first    three    years,    and    in    ten    years    250,000.00 

,re,  prosecutions  and  convictions  in  printing  steal  graft 
cases,  estimated  by  leading  politicians,  saved  county  and  state 

over     500,000.00 

TIS   in  License   Inspection  graft  cases  increased  collection 

to    city    of    over    $75,000.00   annually    300,000.00 

5.  Parental  School  Law  of  1901,  required  building  and  maintenance 
of  parental  school  for  truants.  Estimated  cost  by  School  Board 
of  $50,000.00  and  annual  maintenance  $25,000.00.  Law  never 
complied  with  because  made  unnecessary  by  co-operative  pro- 
bat  ni  between  home,  school  and  court  by  Juvenile 
Court.  Saving  in  twelve  years  by  this  system,  on  building  50,0000.00 
lintenance  dispensed  with  for  twelve  years  at  estimated  sav- 

inu  ;.er   annum    ." 300. • 

T.  Inaugurated  new  system  of  record  bookkeeping  in  Count y  Court, 
and  in  six  and  one-half  years  saved  from  extra  clerical  hire  and 
other  expenses,  to  turn  over  to  county  in  cash  from  excess 

fees  earned   (more   than  turned  over  in  history  of  court) 50,000.00 

S.  Inaugurated  system  sending  most  of  prisoners  alone  to  insti- 
tutions, estimated  saving  in  fees  from  old  system 5,000.00 

9.      Organized    County    Judges    Association,    and    proposed    probate 

le,     simp'ifyinsr    procedure    and    saving    fee     charges    against 

estates   of   widows    and   orphans,    making    saving    (estimated    by 

able  lawyers)    to  them   in   this  state   in  ten  years,   of 500,000.00 

nd  Afterwards  wrote  "Beast  and  the  Jungle"  to  de- 
feat franchise  thieves,  and  by  helping  in  defeat  of  one  grab 
to  be  at  least  $20,000,000.00 

COMPARATIVE    COST    OF   COURTS   AS    SHOWN    IN    1912. 

Pays  out  of  his  salary  Assistant  Judge  of  Juvenile  Court,  and  runs 
court  trying  cases  involving  people — over  1,000  men,  women 
and  children,  annually  on  budget  of  only  $17,000.00 

(This  includes  nearly  one-third  as  many  criminal  cases  as  in  en- 
tire West  Side  Court.) 

As  against  District  Court,  in  which  was  filed  only  2,167  cases, 
involving  property  and  only  five  hundred  involving  men,  at  an- 
nual cost  of  ..." 160,000.00 

And  County  Court,  in  cases  mostly  involving  property,  on  ex- 
pense approximately  50,000.00 

Reduced  delinquency  in   Denver  in  ten  years,   as  shown  by  records 

^nd    statements    of    Chiefs    of    Police,    over    100% 

ised  efficiency  in  sex  cases  concerning  children  and  gir's  in 
detections,  prosecutions,  convictions  and  punishments  in  all  di- 
rections, as  shown  by  the  court  record,  an  average  of  from  70%  to  300% 

In  doing  all  this  constructive  work,  saving  the  millions  of  money 
and  thousands  of  boys  and  girls  involved,  gave  as  many  hours  on  the 
bench  and  more  hours  of  actual  work,  and  saved  more  money  and 
human  beings  to  the  people — as  can  be  shown  by  the  records — than 
any  judge  in  the  history  of  the  state. 

Not  as  a  boast,  but  in  defense  of  a  record  assailed,  we  challenge 
the  enemy  to  start  their  recall  petitions,  and  we  will  meet  them  in 
the  hustings  and  make  good  all  these  items  of  work,  of  saving  in  dol- 
lars, cents  and  human  beings.  If  it  is  a  reason  to  recall  the  head  of 
the  institution  that,  with  the  help  of  its  friends  among  the  women 

91 


and   men   of  ,.;•  a*  .-,   accomp-i  -i  J.   tills   record  of   constructive,   he'    Cjt- 
service,   we   can  surely  stand   it  if  the   people  can.  inkly 

But  the  people  in  that  struggle  will  not  vote  it  a  crime  for  a  inted 
lie  servant  to  do  more  than  he  is  hired  to  do — to  give  more  of  his  (Sarv 
strength  and  purse  than  he  is  expected  to  do.  They  will  repeat  ttieir 
generous  approval  as  shown  in  the  following  ten  elections  and  ap- 
pointments in  twelve  years: 

APPROVED   BY   PEOPLE  TEN   TIMES. 

1.  Appointed   Judge   December,    1900,   by   Board   of    County   Commissioners 
to   finish   unexpired  term  of  Judge   Steele,   who  became  Chief  Justice  of  Colo- 
rado. 

2.  .  Elected   November,    1902,    by   5,000   majority,    leading   ticket   by   average 
vote   of   3,000. 

3.  Elected  May,   1904,   city  and   county  election,   by  largest  majority   given 
any   candidate,   and   carrying   every   precinct   in    Denver. 

4.  Elected  November,   1904,    state   election,   by   largest   majority  given   any 
candidate,    and   carrying   every    precinct    in    Denver. 

5.  Juvenile  Court  legislated  out  of  County  Court,  and  appointed  Judge  by 
County   Commissioners,    July,    1907. 

6.  Elected  November,  1908,  independent  and  alone  against  both  party  ma- 
chines, with  largest  plurality  given  any  candidate — carrying  nearly  every  pre- 
cinct   in    Denver. 

7.  Judicial   opinion   holding   office    vacant   in    1911    by    legal    technicalities, 
and  appointed  Judge  by   Hon.   Robert  W.   Speer,   then  Mayor  of  Denver. 

Elected  May,  1912,  city  and  county  election,  by  27,000  majority  out  of 
leTsr  than  60,000  votes  cast  for  the  office,  and  carrying  every  precinct  in  Den- 
ver. In  University  Park  precinct — home  of  Chancellor  Buchtel — vote  was 
Lindsey  220,  Gavin  36. 

9.  Elected  state  primary  election  1912  as  non-partisan  candidate  of  Dem- 
ocratic  party   and   nominated   by   Progressives. 

10.  Elected   sta.tevel^*tidn,  November,    1912,   against  candidate   of   Republi- 
can  party   by   f  olio  wing'  "vote   iri   city:      Lindsey,    45,251;    Lang,    10,247;    majority 
for   Lindsey,    35,000.'   '"Carried    every   precinct   in    Denver,    including    University 
precinct — home    of    Chancellor    Buchtel — by     following     vote:        Lindsey,      228; 
Lang,    32. 


92 


Binder 

Gaylord  Bros.. 


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